John Hennessy
Medical Student Representative University of Michigan
Candidate Statement
I have been an educator since 2009, when I started my first tutoring company as an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan. Over the next seven years, we grew to over fifty employees in seven locations across three states. It was during this time (during which I went back for graduate school but kept putting off applying to medical school) that I initially fell in love with teaching and also developed a lifelong interest in how to teach, not just what to teach. Outside of the private sector, my teaching experience continued when I eventually began teaching in academia. Since 2015, I have been a lecturer for the University of Michigan. I have taught 1,000+ students over 20 semesters, and I have continued to teach while in medical school. In addition to actively teaching both undergraduate and graduate students as a lecturer, I have designed new courses and served as an instructor for the National Science Foundation (NSF) I-Corps program, where I’ve taught academic researchers and clinicians to look beyond the lab and accelerate research into commercial success.
In addition to my teaching experiences, I am also an entrepreneur who has collaborated across disciplines and departments at the university for over 10 years. Since 2014, I have been CEO and co-founder of a battery/membrane technology startup originally commercialized from research at the University of Michigan. I have the experience of leading a diverse research staff and working with multiple external partners and university stakeholders. I hope to bring this leadership quality to medicine, where I believe the future of medicine will involve diverse, interdisciplinary teams. I want to leverage my entrepreneurial and education experiences into a career where I can critically evaluate problems, do more with less, and improve outcomes through education.
By serving as a RAMS medical student, I hope to continue my passion for teaching and curriculum development in the realm of medical education and the specialty of emergency medicine. During my time in medical school so far, I’ve worked on multiple medical education projects, such as developing new content (pre-recorded lectures and active learning) for the first-year curriculum. As a co-president of my medical school’s emergency medicine interest group, I also manage educational workshops (such as splinting, IV, suturing, and ultrasound workshops) that happen throughout the year. I hope to use my position as a RAMS medical student to further my passion for teaching how to think, not just what to think. Going forward, I want to work on medical education projects that focus on teaching the critical appraisal of evidence, the benefits and flaws of diagnostic/treatment algorithms (especially when used in emergency settings), and deductive reasoning when generating differentials. I want to help develop workshops and entrepreneurial resources to assist RAMS residents and students in need-finding, ecosystem mapping, and assumption testing to help bridge the gap between practitioners who see a problem or need in their field (critical care, ultrasound, etc) and the necessary tools/resources to leverage emerging technologies in the field to solve those problems.
In addition to my teaching experiences, I am also an entrepreneur who has collaborated across disciplines and departments at the university for over 10 years. Since 2014, I have been CEO and co-founder of a battery/membrane technology startup originally commercialized from research at the University of Michigan. I have the experience of leading a diverse research staff and working with multiple external partners and university stakeholders. I hope to bring this leadership quality to medicine, where I believe the future of medicine will involve diverse, interdisciplinary teams. I want to leverage my entrepreneurial and education experiences into a career where I can critically evaluate problems, do more with less, and improve outcomes through education.
By serving as a RAMS medical student, I hope to continue my passion for teaching and curriculum development in the realm of medical education and the specialty of emergency medicine. During my time in medical school so far, I’ve worked on multiple medical education projects, such as developing new content (pre-recorded lectures and active learning) for the first-year curriculum. As a co-president of my medical school’s emergency medicine interest group, I also manage educational workshops (such as splinting, IV, suturing, and ultrasound workshops) that happen throughout the year. I hope to use my position as a RAMS medical student to further my passion for teaching how to think, not just what to think. Going forward, I want to work on medical education projects that focus on teaching the critical appraisal of evidence, the benefits and flaws of diagnostic/treatment algorithms (especially when used in emergency settings), and deductive reasoning when generating differentials. I want to help develop workshops and entrepreneurial resources to assist RAMS residents and students in need-finding, ecosystem mapping, and assumption testing to help bridge the gap between practitioners who see a problem or need in their field (critical care, ultrasound, etc) and the necessary tools/resources to leverage emerging technologies in the field to solve those problems.
