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Hometown: Brooklyn Park, Minn.
College and major: University of Minnesota - Minneapolis, Biochemistry
Likely to do on a free weekend: "Watch movies, be with friends and families - maybe play some board games like Scrabble and Monopoly."
Guilty Pleasure: "I'm not sure. But I know I'm the kind of person who doesn't like to work out."
Best Advice from Parents: "Not to give up. Always try to overcome life's obstacles, because if you give up, you'll never learn what you can do."
Best childhood memory: "I grew up in Nigeria, and when I was not in the kitchen helping my mom, I liked to garden."
Grateful for: "The support and encouragement from everyone around me. It helps me through hard times." |
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Meet Adetolu Odufuye,
Mayo Medical School Class of 2010
Some memories never dim, they blaze. Adetolu Odufuye used the blaze from childhood memories of loss and injustice in her former homeland of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, West Africa, to light the way to Mayo Medical School.
Explains Adetolu: "Mayo Medical School has so much meaning for me because of the things I've been through in my earlier life. When we were in Nigeria and I was eight years old, I lost my elder brother from complications of severe burns. Access to health care was not good, and we needed a doctor. But the hospital wouldn't treat him because we couldn't pay. I don't want someone to go through what I went through; I want to be there for anyone who needs me."
Because of Mayo Clinic's historic commitment to the primacy of patient care, Adetolu feels as if she has an institutional ally that can help her realize her dream of a transformed health care system. It will be a system that provides both excellent health care - and access to excellence - to all people. "It has always been a goal of mine to try to create a better world of medicine for people," she says. "But for many years, I didn't know how I could do that. Then at university, I learned of Mayo Clinic Medical School, and now I see how this dream could come true."
Why Mayo Medical School
Both of Adetolu's parents attended college in the United States, then returned to Nigeria to work and raise a family. Shortly after Adetolu began high school, her family moved to Brooklyn Park, Minn., to prepare her for an American college education. Adetolu graduated from University of Minnesota, where she majored in biochemistry.
Though she had never heard of Mayo Clinic while living in Nigeria, its reputation for excellence reached her once in the United States through her science education in the Twin Cities. She was hesitant to apply at first because of what she thought would be a small-town, isolated feel of Rochester - and a distinct lack of racial or cultural diversity.
All that changed after her interview. "Everybody was so welcoming, and so helpful, I couldn't believe it," Adetolu says. "They kept asking me over and over what they could do to help, and it wasn't just me. I was really impressed at how respectfully everyone I met treated each other."
Best 3 Surprises of MMS
Three of the biggest surprises of the Mayo Medical School experience for Adetolu are:
- Discovering that Rochester's cultural and racial diversity is much greater than she originally thought. A large international Mayo staff and growing immigrant population in Rochester help create a diverse social climate.
- Experiencing Mayo to be the land of seemingly 24/7 teaching - it's not just a classroom exercise at the prescribed hours. Says Adetolu: "This is the thing I really love about Mayo - that everybody is willing to teach you, anywhere, anytime, almost. They just say, ‘yes' when you ask. That really strikes me as amazing, that as a first-year student I can contact a physician who is busy, and well-known and in demand in his or her field, and ask them for some time and they just say, ‘yes'. As a result, I've had incredible experiences by getting so much clinical exposure. It's unheard of, really, and it's great."
- A generous financial aid program that gives medical students the peace of mind to focus fully on learning. "It's really such a help that finances aren't such a huge issue that they cloud my studying with worry," she says. "That's just one of the ways Mayo shows it cares for its students: they want us not to worry, so we can do our best, and be the most help to patients."
Adetolu's Expectations of MMS Education
It's too soon for Adetolu to know what areas of medicine she wants to specialize in - so many appeal to her. Much of the time she can imagine herself working as a resident perhaps in family medicine or in obstetrics and gynecology. "But I get interested in so many things every time I shadow with a clinician," she laughs.
The one thing that does not change is Adetolu's commitment to providing both excellent care, and access to excellent care to all who need it. These are the two values that endure in her blaze of memory, the values that first brought Adetolu to medicine, and that guide her still.
Mayo Medical School, Adetolu says, is the right place for her because it will "give me the best medical education possible so I can go anywhere - and do anything. I can be the most help. That's why Mayo is just so awesome. I love it!"
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