CONDUCTING THE FIRST AND SECOND INTERVIEWS

During the week of October 24 to October 30, some of the main objectives that were learned in the Independent Study and Mentorship class was conducting the first informational interview, researching our field of study more at length, and continuing to make phone calls to potential mentors for brief informational interviews. The first accomplishment that was achieved this week was successfully conducting two informational interviews with Dr. Kelley Hutcheson and Dr. Mindy Smart. The first interview was held with Dr. Kelley Hutcheson, who is a cardiothoracic surgeon at Baylor Heart Hospital in Plano. She provided me with a vast amount of knowledge about cardiothoracic surgery, starting with her pathway in highschool to studying abroad in Spain to completing medical school and residency at Duke University. This interview was a big accomplishment for me because Dr. Hutcheson agreed to be my mentor. My second interview was with Dr. Mindy Smart, who is an invasive cardiologist and the head of radiology in Baylor Heart and Vascular Hospital in Dallas. This interview gave me another career prospect and perspective of other fields pertaining to cardiology. This week, the cardiothoracic procedure that was studied was minimally invasive heart bypass surgery. This procedure is significant because it shows the growth in technology during the past few decades, and how these technological improvements have decreased death rates caused by this procedure. It makes me wonder what the future will hold and what new technologies will be discovered by the time I am a cardiothoracic surgeon. Some of the challenges that I faced this week was contacting the professionals because doctors are incredibly hard to get in contact with because of their schedules. I now feel much more confident in speaking with professionals, and I see the growth from the beginning, where I used to stutter a lot, to now where everything comes with proper sentence flow. My future goal for the next week in ISM is to become more organized and refrain from procrastination as well as proofreading and revising all research assessments, interview assessments, and weekly reports.