Three short years after she graduated from Heidelberg, Lauren Stainbrook is exactly where she wants to be.
“I can precisely remember so many long nights in the labs in Bareis Hall, wondering if I would ever accomplished all I hoped I would,” says Lauren, who returned to Heidelberg Monday to speak to current students about “Life After Finals.”
Lauren’s life after finals has been anything but dull. A week after graduation with her bachelor’s degree in biology, she packed her bags and headed to Washington, D.C., where she enrolled in Case Western Reserve’s graduate program in anesthesiology.
During Lauren’s second year of grad school, she traveled all over the country, learning techniques and best practices for safely anesthetizing patients. “I wanted to be the best, not only for myself but for the patients I would be charged with caring for,” she says.
Grad school was exhausting at times, and challenging. But Lauren felt well prepared.
“I cannot begin to explain the exhaustion, perseverance and will power that go into learning how to safely put people to sleep, keep them alive and then wake them back up. With both intense didactic and clinical courses, I was pushed harder and harder every day. But I was well equipped. I was prepared. I had been pushed before.”
The “pushing” she refers to involved skills and subject matter she learned at Heidelberg. With great support from “some of the most helpful and knowledgeable staff from the Chemistry and Biology departments,” she mastered various research projects and the proficiencies such as organization, time management, critical thinking and problem solving.
Lauren found these same skills valuable in grad school. Following her first year, she was elected the class chief and was awarded the Cascorbi Scholarship, given to the student with the highest clinical and didactic scores. Four months before she received her master’s degree, she passed her board certification.
Then came decision time. Lauren received six job offers in six states, and accepted a position as an anesthetist at Mount Carmel St. Ann’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. She takes on a wide variety of cases and patients, which include thoracic, vascular, neurologic, general, gynecologic, colorectal and cardiac electrophysiology.
“It’s been thrilling and challenging, and the most perfect fit for me,” she says after nine months on the job. She’s pleased to add that Heidelberg has been a huge part of her success.