Internship Field trip to Mayo Clinic 2025
Late August we were able to continue our incredible tradition of bringing our interns and staff to tour the Mayo Clinic and meet with some of their distinguished physicians and researchers. This year was extra special because we were able to connect with former ACR staff, Emily Juza, who is now a PT student at Mayo! We started off the morning listening to her share her story and experience at ACR and how impactful it was to helping her get to where she is now. After catching up with her our day was filled with a tour of Mayo's buildings where we learned about the history and forward thinking that permeates Mayo's culture.
Part of our tour took us to the Kellen building, where we listened to Dr. Lucien-Matteoni discuss his work in the field of cancer research and the detection and capture of cancer biomarkers for high grade prostate cancer. As he showed us around the lab, he highlighted the enriching and collaborative environment that is unique to Mayo. Mayo prides itself on teamwork and the impressive results when researchers and physicians can intersect and work together to inform each other's work in real time.
We spent the rest of our day in Q&A sessions with Dr. Karnes, Dr. Staab, Dr. Frye, and Dr. Biernacka, distinguished and world renowned physicians and researchers at Mayo who shared their stories and made themselves available to answer questions from our staff. Mayo clinic strives for excellence in three areas, which they call their '3 shields' of Mayo-- practice, education, and research. Dr. Karnes is a leader in the field of urology and talked about his journey from an undergrad major in political science how his medical practice has led to an investigative approach to his research in the field of urology.
Dr. Staab is the current chair of Mayo's Department of Psychiatry and Psychology and talked about how the concepts and problem solving skills from his undergraduate degree in engineering has overlapped with his career in medicine. Dr. Frye and Dr. Biernacka lead and oversee Mayo Clinic's Bipolar Disorder Biobank, which contains valuable blood samples from those with bipolar 1 and 2 disorder. They again emphasized the benefits of multi-disciplinary collaboration and also talked about the progress the field of psychiatry, psychology, and statistics has made, and their excitement on the direction of their research.
Our trips to Mayo always leave us refreshed, motivated, and eager to come back and continue to find ways to elevate our care for our residents. A BIG thank you to our CEO, Jim Nelson, for making trips like this possible for our students! If you are interested in finding ways to become more involved with an internship, grad school prep, or other activities that can help you on your journey to your future career, reach out to Jon Moe at jon.moe@acrhomes.com!
Here is some feedback from our group!
Timo, Tiller and current Impact Year Intern: I really enjoyed getting to hear from all the doctors and how they all emphasized the importance of teamwork and collaboration. I also thought that the urology lab was very cool.
Shreya Pothi, Lancaster, DCP: I enjoyed hearing that there is no one path to get where you want to be, and to take every experience and learn from it. I also found it super interesting to learn about they mayo Clinic history and that even the art and small things they got off eBay have meaning towards their mission.
Sakib Adnan, Fallgold, DCP/Intern: I enjoyed learning that we need to be curious and enthusiastic about learning to get ahead in your life. We should try to take the opportunities that come to us and get connected with more people even if we are unsure of what to do next. Just take the opportunity!
Gabby Afari, Magnolia, DCP/Intern: I enjoyed learning about the different backgrounds from which the doctors came from. I liked how it wasn't just a straight four years undergrad, four years medical school and straight into becoming a doctor. They had other experiences like research and lab work.
Joey Kurus, Lancaster, DCP: I enjoyed learning about their eagerness and attempts to not just work alongside each other, but to actually share their work and ideas with each other. It was neat to see that they didn't try to stick to what they knew and were open to seeing things from others' perspectives.
Idaly Sanchez, Larch, DCP/Intern: I really enjoyed our visit to Mayo Clinic because of what I got to learn and see. From learning about the niche and very specific topics investigators/researchers look into such as the relation between bipolar disorder and alcoholism to the environment the staff create to make sure it's welcoming and patient-centered. It's eye-opening to see how people especially in the field of medicine find their interests and what they want to focus on in their careers especially with their various backgrounds and education.
Amelia Warner, Jennifer Court and current Impact Year Intern: I enjoyed learning that having an open mind can lead to more opportunities in life. I also appreciated hearing about the many opportunities people encounter, and how, as a young adult, life is always changing with so much more to look forward to.
Meredith McDowell, Oakwood and current Impact Year Intern: It was super interesting to hear about the triple shield approach to healthcare. It was evident that Mayo prioritizes and follows through on interdisciplinary service work through their core values of clinical practice, education, and research. I'm interested in those professional avenues and it was cool to find a place where all three complement each other to serve patients.