Mountaineer Attends Congress for Future Medical Leaders

Junior Mary Pearson recently participated in the virtual Congress for Future Medical Leaders. The congress is an opportunity for students who have an interest in a future career as a physical or medical scientist and 3.5 GPA or better to learn more about the field of medicine. Approved delegates had the opportunity to learn from winners of the Nobel Prize, award-winning young inventors and scientists, and even witness a surgery.

Mary shared her experience of the virtual congress. "Normally it would be in Washington D.C., but it was over Zoom because of COVID... The congress ran from 11 A.M. to 9 P.M. and had two one-hour breaks and a lot of 10-minute breaks in between. There were noble prize speakers such as Mario Capecchi who worked with genes and other young influencers such as Gitanjali Rao who was in 2019 Forbes 30 under 30. Altogether there were 20 speakers. They all had slideshows, and they talked about their lives, experiences, research, and gave advice on not only getting into the medical field but how to be successful in life. There was even a live hip replacement surgery and an orthopedic surgeon described everything that was happening in detail. That was definitely my favorite part. It was really cool!"