Interview at Texas Tech HSC Lubbock

August 17th, 

Interview at Texas Tech Health Sciences School in Lubbock Texas. 

Where to begin?  I must say, eating oatmeal this morning, breakfast of champions, reminded me much of what it is like during Triathlon mornings. It takes almost all that is in you to simply get the food down. The legs are bouncing constantly and it seems like the only thing you can think about is the event ahead. That was precisely how I felt this morning. Once I arrived at the school and spoke with a few of the interviewees I became very calm and quickly found comfort in helping them relax and take a deep breathe. It felt good. The schedule of the day sort of went as follows:

9:00-9:30 mix and mingle, free food, talk in the Synergistic center

9:30-11 Orientation, watch a short presentation on Tech, Short info sessions by:

Dr. Mitchell, organized the Cooper institute. He asked if there was anyone from outside of Texas. I raised my hand and he asked where, I replied Utah to which he quickly said, "Oh, ok, North West Texas".  Everyone laughed

Dr. Burk, Dean and Provost of the Medical school

Dr. Kim Peck, Wonderful kind lady

Louis Perez, chill man. I remember when someone else was talking, I looked back at him and he looked at me and we both kind of gave one another a little nod. That was cool.

11:00-12:00 Tour of the facilities. Amazing. Can I just say that?!  It is a state of the art, prestine teaching medical school that is extremely friendly, laid back, and lovely.  I was impressed with their Simulation lab. All tect out, (no punn intended), hi technology.  (I am started to get very tired. I need to hurry)

12-1 Lunch, Ableos catered, very good chicken Fajitas.

1:00-1:40 Interview with Dr. Leigh Johnson, PhD. 

1:30-2:10 Interview with III yr. Med student Danielle Jones

2:10-3:00 ( we went over time on purpose) Dr. Nix from the MBA program.

Then pretty much chill from there until we left.

The interviews were appropriate. Sam Strubble prepared me incredibly by helping me know what the application did their scoring on. I felt very prepared and had gone through enough scenarios in my mind to have a few ideas of what I could say. 

A question from Dr. Johnson (A very sleek athletic middle aged women) that I found very good was she asked what my experiences were with shadowing that I really liked. I talked about Dr. Root and his root beer cans and how he seemed to integrate a number of professions in one as he met, diagnosed and treated his patients. I think she liked that. She had some cool sci-fi pictures on her wall but also some pictures of her children. I chose to talk about her family instead of the pictures. I was relatively deep with Dr. Johnson and I think that is more of who I am rather than discussing things such as Sci-fi or something other like that. There was another interviewee who said that he and she had had a great discussion about that stuff throughout the interview. It made me sad that I hadn' t had a discussion that light and fun with her, but after thinking through it for the whole day, I realize that what I talked about was good.

Future Dr. Jones was a good interview. Somewhat interesting how she cut me off on a few questions. Perhaps I was a little too long winded. I like her input on the F-MAT (Family Medicine Accelerated Track) She said to NOT do it unless I was 100% sure. I take that into account. She also said the school is extremely family friendly. She didn't go to classes for the first 2 years and simply studied at home because she felt she learns the best that way. That was cool.  Down to earth woman and I am glad I was able to have her interview me. She actually gave me her e-mail at the end of the interview and said, "E-mail if you get in. It's interesting how we interview a number of these candidates for months and never really hear what happens to them" I took that as a good sign.

Dr. Nix' interview went very well. We just talked about Health Care, his ranch, and Dr. Allison at UMC for about 40 minutes. He is a great guy that is down to earth. Very enjoyable to sit a little farther back in my chair and relax just a little more as I had this former Rancher talk to me about the great HOM program here at Texas Tech (Health Organization Management).  He said he liked that I told him about my dad because those are the kinds of individuals he is looking for in the progam. Those that are willing to take risks, start companies, fight to provide jobs for the working man, and someone that will employ their ingenuity.

It is very late. I have had a very hectic and busy day. I must say in closing how very nice it was to run into almost every one of my friends from BYU. I saw so many of them at wonderful times of my day. It was great to slap them on the backs or shake their hands and just feel welcome there.  I love those guys and I would love to do the same for those that follow me next year. What a cool thing friendships are!  I highly recommend them;)

Good night.