Episode 32 (.mp3) [ 11:42 ] Download (4905)

James Iwaz and Maureen Beederman are the 2010 Orientation Co-Chairs. They answer some questions about what Orientation entails at Pritzker and what you should NOT be doing over the summer.

Visit http://bit.ly/pritzkerorientation for more info.

If you have questions for us, please send them to pritzkerquestions@gmail.com. Or, call (773) 336-2POD and leave us a message.

[Music: "The Area" used with permission from Eliot Lipp. "Shiggidy" used with permission from Greg Spero and GMG.]

Episode 32 Transcript

Ben Ferguson: Hello everyone! Welcome to another episode of the Pritzker Podcast. This is Episode 32 and given that we are in the thick of the summer months and medical school is starting fairly shortly, we thought that we might do an episode on the Orientation process at the Pritzker School of Medicine. And we are fortunate to be joined by James Iwaz and Maureen Beederman, who are in between their first and second years of medical school. They were elected by their fellow classmates to be the Orientation co-leaders this year for the incoming Pritzker students. And so, we’ve invited them on the show to talk about some things that might be going on during Orientation. So, James and Maureen, welcome to the Pritzker Podcast!

James Iwaz: How’s it going?

Maureen Beederman: Thanks!

BF: Welcome!

MB: Thank you. Hey everyone.

JI: We’re glad to be here.

BF: If you wouldn’t mind, I think an appropriate place to start might just be to have you guys introduce yourselves–just tell folks where you’re from, where you went to college perhaps and if you did anything exiting in between college and medical school, maybe tell them that as well. James, you want to start?

JI: Sure. So, I’m originally from Los Angeles. I lived there my whole life. I went to undergrad in sunny San Diego at UCSD. And then I came out here and it’s been great so far. The weather has been not too bad, not as bad as I thought it would be.

BF: You can mind the snow?

JI: Yeah, I’ve got–it was an easy winter apparently. But wasn’t too bad.

BF: Yeah. Cool. And then, you just came straight from college into Pritzker?

JI: Yeah, I came straight from undergrad. I graduated in ‘09.

BF: Awesome. And you are a Lakers fan?

JI: I am a Lakers fan. So, I’m very happy they won.

BF: So, congratulations in order, I guess, for being a Lakers supporter.

MB: James and I get along despite that, you know?

BF: Are you from Boston, Maureen?

MB: No, no, I’m not. But still, I’m not a huge Lakers fan.

BF: Cool.

MB: So, we’ve managed to get over that.

BF: So, what’s your story?

MB: I’m actually from a suburb of Chicago around 20 miles north of Hyde Park called Wilmette. And I went to Northwestern for undergrad. I graduated in 2008 and then spent a year doing some research at the NIH in DC before moving back to my favorite town ever, Chicago, to come to University of Chicago for med school.

BF: Cool. So, you are just gradually moving down the coast of Lake Michigan for your schooling?

MB: That’s right.

BF: Awesome. Well, after that introduction, I think it might be apropos to talk about Orientation itself: just what people can expect, how long it is, what people typically do during Orientation. Since you guys are in the planning processes, do you want to talk a little bit about some of the general details of Orientation and what it is and what people can expect?

MB: Sure. So, Orientation starts on Thursday, August 5th, And it lasts until–through Monday, August 9th. And–

BF: Can you remind people when classes start?

MB: Yeah. And classes start that following Tuesday, which is the 10th. So, we have lots of Orientation. And then, classes start the next day. And Orientation’s kind of a time to meet your new classmates but also kind of get acquainted with Pritzker and University of Chicago in general, and also the city of Chicago.

JI: And we’ll be doing some basic things like introducing the curriculum, meeting some of the faculty and some of the staff. And there’s also lot of fun things we plan. And there’s some pretty cool stuff we’ll keep a surprise.

BF: Yeah.

MB: Absolutely.

BF: Got to make it sort of a teaser, I guess.

MB: Absolutely, yeah. We want to keep them on their toes.

BF: Cool. And what is your guys’ role in planning Orientation? What do students do versus the actual Pritzker staff?

JI: So basically, we’ve been trying to rally our classmates to get involved with Orientation. And we really want MS13 to represent at Orientation and get the new class acquainted with each other and get to know them ourselves. I think that’s really important. And we’re just in charge of organizing that, just kind of overseeing all different aspects of Orientation: making sure the schedule’s in order, being the liaison with the faculty and staff, that kind of stuff.

BF: Okay. And is it just you two or are there other students involved in this whole process as well?

MB: It’s an entire class-wide thing. I would say that the majority of our class is involved in some way because we had such a great time in our own Orientation that we kind of wanted to pass it along to the incoming class. So, everyone is involved. We’re just kind of the people that’s have this interplay with the faculty and then coordinate all these different groups’ activities.

BF: If we could go back to the schedule and talk about that just a bit more specifically. I think in the past, I remember having down The White Coat Ceremony. And I know there was like a respirator fitting and there were some heap of seminars and stuff like that. Is all that stuff still planned for this year or is there anything new and spectacular?

MB: Yeah, that’s all planned for this year. The White Coat Ceremony is going to be on Sunday, August 8th. And then, the other days are going to be–there’s a focus one afternoon on academic stuff. So, there will be a book sale and kind of a study skills session. But yeah, there’s a mask fitting, and you get your hospital IDs taken, and have to sit through HIPAA of training, and have also BLS [Basic Life Support] training. Everyone is going to be trained and tested on that as well.

BF: And you said White Coat Ceremony–what is that exactly? What does that entail?

JI: So, here at Pritzker we’re very proud of our White Coat Ceremony. It happens every year in Rockefeller Chapel, which is an amazing place to have White Coat. Basically, it’s just kind of a way to induct people into the medical profession. And we usually have a keynote speaker who says some inspirational words. And it’s just really exciting to get your white coat and really feel like, “Okay, now I’m on the road to being a doctor,” so–

BF: Do incoming students need to know anything or prepare anything for Orientation or they just show up? Are they going to be learning any medicine or taking pop quizzes or do they need to do anything in preparation?

MB: No. I mean, maybe a pop quiz on fun or something.

BF: There’s not like an anatomy exam the first day or something?

MB: No. I mean, I think that the one thing that I kind of want to reiterate is for everyone to enjoy their summer whatever they’re doing and there’s plenty of time to study once you get here and get through Orientation. But, we’re not going to be asking anything science-related during Orientation. And for the BLS training, there’s going to be a training session and a practice session before they’re tested on that. So, they don’t need to prepare before they get here.

JI: And BLS is just our CPR training.

BF: Okay.

MB: Yeah, I forgot to mention that. Yeah, just enjoy the summer. There’s nothing really you need to prepare. Although, it would be good, since Orientation does take up basically eight to five everyday, to get all your cable stuff, internet, phone connections taken care of beforehand because there’s not much time once Orientation starts.

BF: Right. Get settled before it starts.

MB: Right.

BF: So you don’t have to take care of that stuff after you’ve already started.

MB: Absolutely.

BF: Cool. Well, do you have any advice for people on how to enjoy the rest of their summer or what should they be doing at this point?

JI: Definitely not opening any anatomy textbooks or anything of that sort. Just enjoy the sun. And if you’re in Chicago early before Orientation, there’s a lot of free concerts and festivals. We just had Taste of Chicago, which is, I think, the world’s biggest food festival, apparently.

BF: Something like that.

JI: Yeah. So, there’s a lot going on that you could take advantage of. I recommend just enjoying not having anything to do because come Orientation, that’s not going to happen.

BF: Yeah. That’s the start of medical school, so–

MB: Yeah. And I think that if people, if the incoming class gets into town in July, I know our class would love to kind of hang out with them and show them around, and take them around if they wanted to contact us. We’re not scary. We’ll take them around and show them Hyde Park and Chicago and everything like that, if people get here early.

BF: Right, exactly. And I know that there tend to be Pritzker Ambassadors as well. And I know some listeners might have additional questions about where to live and where to get food, where to shop for groceries, whether you need a car and stuff like that. So, I know the Ambassadors typically answer those sorts of question, right?

MB: Uh-huh. And they, in one of the mailings, there’s biographies of all the Ambassadors included so people could decide who to best direct questions to. And they’re also accessible on the Orientation website. You can send them emails directly.

BF: Cool. And I think maybe later in the summer, maybe in a few weeks even, we’ll try to get some of those Ambassadors to answer some of those initial questions, if people still have those.

MB: Absolutely.

BF: Well, hopefully this is helpful for folks.

MB: Yeah, I think it definitely is helpful just to kind of give them an overview because I know I was wondering what Orientation was all about.

BF: Yeah, it’s kind of a skittish time, I think. You don’t really know what to expect.

MB: Yeah, exactly. Oh, we should tell them to wear warm clothes to the “beeslick” [BSLC] because it’s cold.

JI: And to not wear a jacket to Rockefeller Chapel because it’s hot.

MB: That’s true.

BF: Super hot.

JI: Yeah.

MB: Absolutely.

BF: All right guys, thanks for joining me. It was nice to chat about this stuff.

JI: Yeah, thanks for having us.

MB: Yeah, definitely thanks for doing this.