VESS strives to facilitate the interchange of new knowledge while providing mentorship, leadership development, and advocacy on behalf of its membership. These efforts are particularly relevant to not only the young vascular surgeon, but also the students and trainees who follow aspiring for a career in vascular surgery.
This program is aimed at achieving the following programmatic goals:
- To introduce medical students from around the country to the dynamic specialty of vascular surgery.
- To embrace the students and make them feel part of the fellowship atmosphere of the VESS annual meeting.
- To provide opportunity for meaningful interaction between the students and vascular surgery residents, fellows, and young faculty in attendance.
- To share the latest research directing the future of our specialty.
- To facilitate new opportunities for mentorship between the students and VESS members and leadership.
- To provide practical guidance for the students such that they feel better prepared to make important career decisions.
The program will feature a combination of didactic lectures and small group sessions to achieve these goals. There will be opportunity for open discussion of relevant questions (see below) and time for interaction between student and vascular trainees. In addition, ample opportunity will exist for spontaneous encounters between the students and VESS members throughout the weekend that are guaranteed to provide less formal, yet more impactful interaction. The VESS will provide each student in attendance a $1,500 scholarship to defray the cost of travel to the meeting.
The Next Generation Student Mentor Program is truly an investment in the future of our specialty by empowering the next generation of medical students to experience the clinical challenges, technological innovation, translational research, and fellowship that defines our important specialty. It requires a collaborative effort between medical schools, individual vascular surgeons, vascular societies like VESS, vascular surgical leadership, and industry partners alike to successfully recruit this country’s “best and brightest” to our specialty.
20 Questions that will be answered by participating in this program:
- What does the specialty of vascular surgery encompass?
- What type of procedures does as vascular surgeon perform?
- What are the training pathways in vascular surgery?
- When should I begin the process for applying for a vascular surgery residency or vascular surgery fellowship position?
- How do I get started in beginning my search for a vascular surgery residency or vascular surgery fellowship training program?
- Is having a vascular surgery faculty mentor important?
- How do I obtain a vascular surgery mentor at my institution?
- Can VESS help me obtain either a local (internal) or regional (external) mentor?
- How do I become involved with vascular research at my institution?
- What medical student or resident specific research meetings are available to me?
- How do I become involved with my local, state, regional and national vascular surgery societies?
- Are there scholarship opportunities available to me to help me attend meetings?
- How do I get started with vascular surgery surgical skills training?
- How do I practice vascular surgery surgical skills training during medical school?
- Who do I talk to at my medical school to receive access to vascular surgery skills training?
- Why is it important to get started in vascular surgery skills training early in my career?
- How do I start a surgical interest group for vascular surgery?
- How do I get involved in device development and innovation?
- Is academic or community practice right for me?
- What is the relationship between a vascular surgeon and industry?
Registration will open on June 1, 2024.
