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Hometown: Moorhead, Minn.
College and major: College of Saint Benedict, St. Joseph, Minn., Biology and Peace Studies
Likely to do on a free weekend: "Hike the Superior Hiking Trail in northern Minnesota, or otherwise just get outside and play and laugh. I laugh a lot."
Guilty Pleasure: "Hmm…" (humming as she thinks):"I like throwing bouncy balls down staircases."
Best Advice from Parents: "Be flexible. Go through life without expectations."
Best Advice from College Professors: "To relax. Life is more than school." |
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Meet Kathryn Thompson,
Mayo Medical School Class of 2010
From her earliest memories, Kate Thompson has had a reverence for biology. Leaves captured her first; she calls them her "small obsession."
Kate's father is a plant geneticist with a seed company and encouraged her interest in all things botanical as she was growing up in Moorhead, Minn. Explains Kate: "I remember just holding leaves in my cupped hands and loving them so much. Every now and then I'd get these little epiphanies from them. They were these little things that seemed so simple, yet they are so powerful. They power the whole plant. It was - and still is - so amazing to me. They seem like divine inspiration telling you to live simply, and to play outside."
Formal training in biology in high school and college, with its dogged search for the molecular basis of beauty, have not dulled the sense of wonder Kate feels for the natural world. Leaves still call, biology in general still calls; nature photography calls; hiking the northwoods and traveling the world call to her.
But most of all, medicine calls. So that is the path Kate takes.
Why Medical School?
The leap from leaf to human health was the outgrowth of Kate's double major at the College of Saint Benedict in St. Joseph, Minn., in biology and peace studies. That unusual combination enabled her to study the complexity and beauty of the natural world in the context of compassionate action in the culturally constructed world. She was greatly influenced by the works and writings of such epochal thinkers as Mahatma Gandhi; the Buddhist monk and poet, Thich Nhat Hanh; the Tibetan Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama; and American social justice advocate Dorothy Day. Combined, she found their life messages at once energizing, clarifying, inspiring, and transformative.
"It really helped me understand why medical school had always been an appealing option to me," Kate says. "It helped me see that what I was really passionate about was compassionate action in the world. I then came to see medicine as a way to live compassionately and to help people by using the science I've always loved. Every person needs to feel cared for in this world, and while that may seem like a really simple thing, it's not happening in much of the world, and sad to say, not always happening in medicine and health care."
Kate's travels abroad and in the United States convinced her of the severe and disabling shortage of compassion in the world. Whether in Ireland, South Africa or at home in Minnesota amid HIV-infected prisoners, Kate saw suffering she realized she could help relieve as a physician. With that insight, the decision was made: her next travels would be to medical school.
Why Mayo Medical School: Trees, Excellence, Happy People
Two initial reasons motivated Kate to seek admission to MMS: its location among the deciduous forests of her beloved Minnesota, and its reputation for excellence in patient-centered clinical care, research and education.
But the third reason clinched it for her. "People seem genuinely happy at Mayo," she says. Kate marveled at the joyfulness of physicians, nurses, desk attendants, elevator assistants, and administrators. She warmed to the handwritten holiday card she received; she was awed by the consistently caring, concerned and focused telephone conversations she had with medical school staff. Every casual or formal encounter with Mayo seemed earnest, purposeful, helpful; informed by a consciousness that a very deep human transaction was occurring.
"No matter how many times I called, with whatever ridiculous question I had, they took their time to be helpful and friendly, and they always remembered who I was. They'd ask me how the weather was in Ireland - it just made me feel so connected," Kate says. "I want to be that way with patients."
While she doesn't know the details yet of where her MMS experience will take her, she is confident it will help her reach her goals of doing international relief medicine. "I don't really know what I want or need yet, but I have a general goal of working six months in Minnesota or Canada, the north woods thing, and then volunteering the rest of the time with an organization like Doctors Without Borders. I want a healthy balance."
Health. Happiness. Leaves. They power the whole plant.
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