Mentee shadow visit includes visit to post-mortum brain bank

Engineering mentee Jake Horder spent part of semester break to shadow his mentor, Dr. Jennifer Connelly, Eng ’89 and associate professor of neurology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She is co-director of the neuro-oncology program at Froedtert and Medical College of Wisconsin and has served in the MUAA Mentor Program for five years.   

Jake started his day at the comprehensive brain tumor conference where he was able to observe the multidisciplinary team review more than 25 patient cases, including MRI imaging and pathology. Neuro-oncologists, neurosurgeons, radiation oncologists and many others reviewed the details and developed an individualized plan of care for each patient. 

Jake then joined Dr. Connelly in busy clinic in the cancer center and saw firsthand the implementation of the plan developed earlier in the day. Research is another important aspect in the field of neuro-oncology and he had the opportunity to visit the post-mortum brain bank, considered among the nation’s largest. He also connected with other scientists and engineers in that lab to learn how their early education and training influences their research today. 

“Thanks to Dr. Connelly, today definitely helped confirm my interest in pursuing medicine and being able to make such an impact in people’s lives,” he says. “We also have plans to shadow in the future and I’m looking forward to another valuable experience.”

2018-19 MUAA Mentor Program Resource Guide