AWS conference
Navigating Conference Networking & Presenting as a Medical Student
by Rachel Akers, MS I vividly remember my first medical school conference. I left the library, suitcase and poster tube in hand, and hopped into an Uber to O’Hare. A few hours later, I was somewhere across the Atlantic, heading towards Berlin. I stood in front of my poster, hoping that no one had any questions beyond my knowledge base as a medical student. I’ve attended many more conferences since, and I’m here to share what I’ve learned. Fully engage with the conference Find sessions that interest you. Many conferences have event apps that allow attendees to preview scheduled forums. Don’t be afraid to ask questions! Our knowledge may not be as advanced as others, but everyone starts somewhere. It’s okay to ask questions, you’re there to learn. Exhaust all options for funding Talking about money can seem taboo, but many research grants have travel funding. Don’t be afraid to...
Breaking Barriers: My Journey As A Female Img And How The Association Of Women Surgeons Fueled My Surgical Aspirations
By Yashjot Kaur From a small town in India to the vast medical community in the United States, my journey as an International Medical Graduate (IMG) has been one of resilience, discovery, and growth. When I decided to pursue a residency in the U.S., I had few opportunities available. As a first-generation medical student, the first in my family to ever take an international flight, and from a background where neither of my parents spoke English fluently, my journey has had many peaks and valleys. In my first year of medical school, I fell in love with anatomy. As an artist at heart, surgery combined my passion for art and anatomy. Crafting mandala art, with its intricate designs and attention to detail, mirrors the precision required in surgery, and, very much like art, surgery provides me with an opportunity to work with my hands. When I decided to pursue a...
Finding Your Stage Presence
By Kimberly Lumpkins, MD, MBA I have a confession: I love public speaking. Standing on stage and feeling the audience connect with you is a magical experience. People often tell me that they couldn’t possibly be as comfortable on stage as I appear to be--that it must be some sort of innate and alien talent, but nothing could be further from reality. I began as a laughably awful public speaker, who was terrified of the stage. Back in high school, I joined the public speaking team where I was notable only for my abject incompetence. Memorized monotonous reading, check. A blizzard of “um” and “uh” peppered throughout every sentence, check. Gut churning nausea before every speech, check. I mutually parted ways with the team at the end of the year, in search of some other less miserable activity. So how did I progress from public speaking ignominy to finding genuine...
Association of Women Surgeons Foundation Awards Gala: A Wonderful Night with Friends and an Inspiration for the Future
By Kathleen Romanowski, MD, MAS, FACS I had not gotten dressed up for a night out in a long time. In fact, it is the rare day that I wear anything other than scrubs or pajamas. As I prepared to attend the Association of Women Surgeons Foundation (AWSF) Awards Gala, I was excited. Not only was I getting to wear a fancy dress for one of the first times in two and a half years, but I was also going to get to spend an evening with my friends. It has been a long time since we had the chance to gather in the same room to celebrate each of us and the friendships we have forged over the years and reward the best among us. The AWSF Awards Gala was an event that pre-pandemic, I looked forward to every year. It is hard to describe fully what makes it...
Celebrating our Past, Transforming our Future: Reflections on making the AWS 40th anniversary celebration video
By Tiffany J Sinclair, MD As a member of the AWS Residents and Fellows committee, I had the privilege of putting together a video in celebration of AWS’s 40th anniversary that will be presented at the upcoming conference. I am by no means a professional video editor, but it is one of my hobbies and I was excited to have the opportunity to pay homage to our wonderful organization. In honor of the conference’s theme “Celebrating our Past, Transforming our Future,” several other members of the committee and I decided to interview a few of our past presidents for the video. We wanted to hear about their favorite AWS memories, their most meaningful experiences, and their thoughts on where our organization is headed in the future. In total, we interviewed five of our past presidents: Drs. Patricia Numann, Margaret Dunn, Leigh Neumayer, Beth Sutton, Myriam Curet, as well as our...
My Favorite Weekend of the Year
by Kathleen Romanowski, MD Since I attended my first Association of Women Surgeons (AWS) Annual meeting 6 years ago, the weekend before the American College of Surgeons meeting in October has become one of my favorite weekends of the year. The feeling of attending this meeting can be hard to describe to those who have never had the opportunity to attend, but I will try. Imagine walking into a surgical meeting. You look around surveying the room, looking for a place to sit, maybe trying to see if you know anyone there. As you look around you realize that this meeting has a very different look to it. Instead of the usual sea of black suits with a few pops of color, you encounter a sea of color with a few dark color suit spots. Rather than a largely male crowd, you are surrounded by a multitude of female faces...