By Olivia Cheng “What are you doing?” This was the forever question my mentor would ask me in the operating room when we worked together. It was often paired with “Go faster,” “Slow down,...
Blog
Meet the Blog Team
The Association of Women Surgeons (AWS) Blog was started in 2013 by some amazing female surgeons. We have appreciated the support and growth of the blog since then. We love sharing the stories of wom...
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Celebrating the first women surgeons in the US: Inspiration for future progress
by Nallammai Muthiah Statistics are relatively easy to find these days. It does not take many Google searches to realize that surgery and most surgical subspecialties, even in 2021, are still male-do...
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I did it my way!
By Dr. Sabreen Al Zamil Ever since medical school, plastic surgery was my passion. I was determined to become a plastic surgeon so I shadowed my professor (who later became my mentor). ...
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Half-Chinese and Half-Vegetarian
By Heather Yeo, MD, MHS, MBA, MS Growing up in a small rural town in Oregon, I was not surrounded by a very diverse community. I don’t think I even understood the words “race,” “ethnicity,”...
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A year of radical changes
By Dr. Rocio Carrera The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted our lives and plans. Almost a year after the world went into quarantine and after countless losses of lives, jobs, and homes, we can finally see...
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Highs and Lows of Surgery: Juice Boxes on my Surgery Rotation
By Hannah Case The first two years of medical school, I found myself fighting with an inexorable desire to be in the operating room. Surgery seemed alluring; addictive almost, yet I fought its appeal...
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Egyptian Women in Surgery
By Hadeer Nasr An in-depth look into the history of ancient Egypt brings to light the certain fact that females can introduce themselves energetically even in a male dominated Kingdom. A few notab...
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A Glimpse Behind the Scenes: What Really Goes on at a Residency Selection Committee
By Sarah Armenia On a crisp Boston morning during the AWS annual meeting this fall, sixty medical students gradually filed into a ballroom and chatted nervously as they sipped coffee and looked at ...
Blog
The Importance of Mentorship and Experiences
By Fabiola Valenzuela As one of the winners of an essay contest held by the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine (https://www.utrgv.edu/school-of-medicine/) Surgery Department a...