Real-World Experience
Biomedical Engineering

Katie Ebbesen (biomedical engineering major): The thing that really attracted me to Iowa was, first of all, the biomedical engineering program, because at the time I applied, it was only one of 22 accredited schools for biomedical engineering in the entire nation. Nicole Grosland is my academic adviser, and she has been awesome as far as helping me decide what I want to do and what direction I want to go in my career.

Nicole Grosland (biomedical engineering professor): I think students enroll in biomedical engineering with a goal of making a difference in the world. Katie volunteers in the hospital, and she also has the opportunity to shadow physicians, thereby gaining real-world experience that will help her in the future.

Katie: The thing that I really love about doctor-shadowing is that it gives me a taste for medicine as an undergraduate. I was really happy that I don't have to wait to go to medical school to find out if this is something that I really want to do.

Thomas D. Scholz (associate professor of pediatrics): For someone like Katie, coming through and being involved in the mentoring program here, she has an interest in pursuing a career in medicine, so that is kind of the way I geared my instruction and interactions with her, is to provide her with an educational background and some information that may help with her decision for selecting a career in medicine.

Katie: Through engineering and through things like volunteering and doctor-shadowing, I've been able to get involved in so many things and had so many ways to channel my energy and to grow as a person.