Inspired and full of new ideas
Originally published in the Fall 2014 issue of ARVONews
Sitting in a meeting room with breakfast in front of them, the 2014 Developing Country Eye Researcher Travel Fellowship recipients listened as J. Mark Petrash, PhD, encouraged them to use the ARVO 2014 Annual Meeting to expand their networks.
"ARVO is a global organization "” almost half of our membership comes from outside the U.S.," he said. "So we want to be able to bridge the gaps between countries and universities and regions of the world. The Annual Meeting this week is the most important opportunity that you have to create those bridges."
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| Travel fellowship recipient Karen Koetsie from Johannesburg, South Africa (center) with her mentors Terri Young (left) and J. Mark Petrash. |
Among those in the audience was his mentee Karen Koetsie, BSc, MBChB, MMed, FCOphth, from Johannesburg, South Africa. Just as Petrash and Koetsie were paired as part of the ARVO Foundation's Fellowship, nine other recipients from developing countries were paired with veteran ARVO attendees to help them navigate their first Annual Meeting.
Koetsie's first impression was that "everything is just overwhelmingly hectic" regarding the program, but she said she was going to make time to see the Keynotes "” Nobel Laureate Professor Barry Marshall and Jean Bennett, MD, PhD, FARVO.
"It will be most important for me just to gain pearls from my mentors, ask lots of questions and mostly take back some ideas for my research," she said.
At the end of the week, during the program's closing reception, Koetsie commented how much she appreciated that the group was informed from Day One and was given the opportunity that first day to sit with the mentors to plan the week.
"I've enjoyed ARVO tremendously," she said. "I've had two great mentors, both from the United States [Terri Young, MD, FARVO, from Duke University and Petrash from University of Denver]. They've been great, they've been supportive and I've learned a lot."
Koetsie was also thrilled to see posters related to her area of interest: ocular plastics.
"The posters I saw were cases that I see every day. These presenters saw these cases, put them together and made sense of the data, and suddenly it was research," she said. "And that's given me inspiration "” seeing what others are doing and allowing me the opportunity when I get back to do the same.
"What I'm taking back to my country is inspiration to start research and also to encourage my colleagues and fellow consultants to start research and maybe come to ARVO and be inspired like I have been."
Introductions and collaborations
Inspiration was a common theme among the Fellowship participants during the closing comments "” all were enthusiastic for the opportunities and ideas they were bringing back to their countries.
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| Travel fellowship recipient Jelena Potic from Belgrade, Serbia (center) with her mentors Poonam Mudgil (left) and Haiyan Gong. |
Jelena Potic, MD, from Serbia, is taking back connections within the scientific community, thanks to her mentors. (Haiyan Gong, MD, PhD, of Boston University and Poonam Mudgil, PhD, of the University of Western Sydney).
"[Their advice] was really very important for me, because when I first came here it was such a huge meeting that couldn't know where to go, what to do with my schedule. I wanted to see lots of posters, hear a lot of talks; [they taught me] how to manage all that."
Along with giving words of wisdom, Potic's mentors reiterated Petrash's advice by encouraging her to network. They introduced her to clinicians and scientists, as well as PhD students and residents.
Potic plans to take back the experience and information she gained about ARVO to share with her colleagues, to popularize ARVO and its meeting in her country and hopefully encourage colleagues to participate in future years."So some new ideas were born here," she said. "I met with one professor from Switzerland, and we could start [collaborating on] research this summer possibly."
"I'm sad that it's over, really, because it was a wonderful week and it passed very quickly," she said. "I'm tired, but I am happy and full of new ideas and experience."