• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Association for Academic Surgery (AAS)

  • Home
  • About
    • AAS Staff
    • Contact Us
    • Foundation
  • Membership
    • Apply For Membership
    • New Member List
    • Membership Directory
    • Check Dues Balance / Pay Dues
  • Jobs
    • AAS Job Board
    • Post a Job
  • Resources
    • Assistant Professor Playbook – Coming Soon!
    • Partners
    • AAS Resources
    • Resident Research Funding Primer
  • Grants/Awards
    • AAS/AASF Fall Courses Award
    • AAS/AASF Research Awards
      • Basic Science/Translational Research Award
      • Clinical Outcomes/Health Services Research Award
      • Trainee Research Fellowship Award in Education
      • Global Surgery Research Fellowship Award
      • Joel J. Roslyn Faculty Research Award
    • Travel Awards
      • AAS/AASF Student Diversity Travel Award
      • Senior Medical Student Travel Award
      • Visiting Professorships
    • Awards FAQ’s
  • Meetings
    • Academic Surgical Congress
    • Surgical Investigators’ Course
    • AAS Fall Courses
    • International Courses
      • AAS/COSECSA Fundamentals of Surgical Research Course
    • Resident Research Funding Primer
  • Publications
  • Webinars
    • Diversity, Inclusion & Equity Series
      • Allyship
      • PRIDE: The LGBTQ+ Community in Academic Surgery
      • Racial Discrimination in Academic Surgery
    • Academic Surgery in the Time of COVID-19 Series
      • How to Optimize your Research During the Pandemic
      • How to Optimize Educational Experiences During the Pandemic
      • Virtual Interviews
    • The Transition to Practice – Presented by Intuitive
  • Leadership
    • Current AAS Leadership
    • AAS Past Presidents
    • How to Chair
    • Committee Missions & Objectives
    • AAS Officer Descriptions
  • Blog
    • Submit a Post
  • Log In

February 10, 2022 by Pam Choi, MD

One Team. One Fight. One Family- The ASC Experience

The mission of the AAS is “to Inspire and develop young academic surgeons.” There is no greater exemplification of this mission than the Academic Surgical Congress. As in the military where the mantra, “One Team. One Fight. One Family.” is often drilled into our collective consciousness, I could see this everywhere at ASC22, and often it was personified during the small moments in between the sessions.

I started the day with the Mentor-Mentee breakfast. As being only 18 months out from fellowship, I did not feel very far off from being a resident. I wondered if the residents would be disappointed that I was just a junior faculty instead of meeting with a more established senior attending.

The resident mentees at our breakfast table were 3 aspiring pediatric surgeons who were all presenting their work at this conference. We had a great discussion about applying for pediatric surgery programs, the match process, and just life as a junior attending. Afterward, they all reached out to me individually to thank me. It was truly humbling considering I barely felt like I did anything other than give them my time. They even invited me to dinner later that evening. I had no other plans, so I said, “sure.”

In between sessions, I was walking back to the main hall for the Presidential address, when I spotted someone checking in the registration desk in an Air Force uniform. As the outgoing chair of the military committee, I thought I knew all the military surgeons who were coming to the meeting. I quasi-stalked her until she was done with her registration and introduced myself. We chatted, and I invited her to our Military committee meeting later that afternoon, which she was happy to come to.

After the Presidential address, I met with Eugene Kim, AAS Past-President, for lunch to discuss some career advice. We were then casually joined by Cynthia Downard, Surgeon-in-Chief of Norton Children’s Hospital, Tim Donahue, Chief of Surgical Oncology at UCLA, and the Clifford Cho and the Justin Dimick of the University of Michigan. The collective brain power and experience at that table was intimidating but we simply chatted about the ASC and Superbowl.

Due to travel restrictions, not everyone could travel to the meeting. One Army resident was presenting an abstract in a Hepatobiliary/Pancreas session but her mentor was unable to come. Although she was an Army resident (my usual response would be Go Navy, Beat Army), I was more than happy to serve as a substitute mentor- we had gone out to dinner together the day before, and I was there during her presentation, taking pictures so that I could send them to her mentor.

During one of the breaks, I caught up with some other pediatric surgeons by the pool bar. These were all women I had met when we were interviewing together for the pediatric surgery match and stayed friends. We shared our collective experiences and struggles as junior faculty but then this progressed into new research ideas and exciting possibilities for collaboration.

We then had our Military committee meeting, including the 2 new military residents whom I had never met before ASC22 and had invited to the meeting.  As we outlined what we had done and our plans, there was an influx of renewed enthusiasm and purpose, particularly by the residents who had never even known of the existence of the Military Committee and were excited by the prospect of an organization built to support them and their goals.

Following the Business Meeting, I immediately walked over to the restaurant for the dinner I had agreed to attend earlier. When I sat down at a table of surgery residents, I was reinvigorated by their enthusiasm and passion for the same field that I loved. I gave them all my contact information before we separated.

It was an incredible day. As I finally winded down in my hotel room, I was struck by all the moments throughout the day in which I found myself supported by mentors and by peers, and by all the moments in which I also supported others, including strangers whom I had never met before. But then again, isn’t that the ultimate purpose of the ASC?

  • Bio
  • Latest Posts
Pam Choi, MD

Pam Choi, MD

Pam Choi (@pmchoi) graduated medical school at the University of Rochester and completed general surgery residency at Washington University in St Louis. After residency, she was the ship surgeon for an aircraft carrier as an active duty Navy officer. She then went to a pediatric surgery fellowship at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, and is now a pediatric surgeon at Naval Medical Center San Diego. She has a husband and 2 sons, aged 8 and 1. In her free time, she enjoys reading history books, conquering Escape Rooms, and visiting National Parks with her family.
Pam Choi, MD

Latest posts by Pam Choi, MD (see all)

  • One Team. One Fight. One Family- The ASC Experience - February 10, 2022

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Print

Other Posts from The Academic Surgeon:

Member Spotlight – Rachel Morris, MD
#AASChat Twitter Topic for Feb 16th “Aligning Research Projects with Institutional Priorities”

Primary Sidebar

Log In

  • Lost your password?

AAS Commitment to Diversity in Academic Surgery

2022 AAS Fall Courses

AAS 2022 Fall Courses San Diego, CA | Saturday, October 15, 2022 Courses will take place immediately prior to the ACS Clinical … More Information » about Fall Courses

Save the Date: 2022 Academic Surgical Congress

Save the date for the 17th ASC!
February 1-3, 2022
Hilton Buena Vista Palace, Orlando, FL
More information coming soon.  Learn more>>

Footer

Association for Academic Surgery
11300 W. Olympic Blvd, Suite 600
Los Angeles, CA 90064
Phone: (310) 437-1606
Email: [email protected]

Follow Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram

© 2022 · AAS - Association for Academic Surgery