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Many roads lead Bennet to medicine and New UlmWell-traveled med student has been around the globeThird year medical student Jeremy Bennett has already seen more of the world and had more life experiences than most hope to have during their entire life. He’s dabbled in foreign languages, biological sciences and teaching and has traveled to more than 30 different countries. With all that under his belt, the Black Duck, MN. native has ultimately landed on a medical career that he felt would be “challenging and rewarding.” Bennett arrived in New Ulm in mid-October and will be studying at the New Ulm Medical Center through June as part of the Rural Physician Associate Program (RPAP) through the University of Minnesota Medical School, where he is a student. The RPAP program was started as an initiative to expose medical students to rural health care and increase the likelihood of interesting students in a rural practice of their own. “Everyone I’ve talked to who has participated in RPAP has said it’s a good program and a great experience,” Bennett said. A key benefit to the program, he explained, is that during his time at NUMC, he is the only student here, which allows for more individual attention rather than being part of a large group of medical students completing rotations together at one of the larger metro facilities. While at New Ulm Medical Center, his preceptor is Dr. Roger Lindholm, a family practice physician who has precepted several RPAP students over the years. Dr. Lindholm points out that the flexibility of the program is one of its strongest points, allowing students experiences in many areas. While at the medical center, Bennett is doing rotations in obstetrics, pediatrics, orthopedics, and internal medicine. “You have to see to it that you are accomplishing certain objectives in the program, but the program allows you the flexibility to set your own schedule in completing them,” Bennett explained. A German major at Notre Dame (he has also taken some Finnish and Italian), Bennett went on to be a teacher at two high schools in Vienna, teaching conversational English. He also worked for United Airlines in Chicago and at Heathrow Airport in London as a flight attendant. Bennett took full advantage of what he saw as the biggest benefit of that job and, when he wasn’t traveling for work, he was busy using his free miles to travel. He estimates he has been to 30 or 40 countries, mostly in Europe, but also has visited such exotic locales as New Zealand, Bangladesh and Lebanon. “There are still a lot of places I’d like to see,” Bennett added. He began to take some classes at the U of M. “I had planned to go back to get teaching certificates for biological sciences and foreign languages,” Bennett said. In the process, he took some pre-requisites for medical school and decided to change his career direction. Though his focus has, out of necessity, been on medicine lately, he has considered ways to incorporate his love of languages into his current career objectives. “I do want to learn Spanish. I would like to do a rotation in a Spanish-speaking country,” Bennett said. “It would be handy and fun to learn another language.” Though Bennett is leaning toward a family practice focus for his future career, he has not made a final decision on his area of specialty. |
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New Ulm Medical Center
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