Why does one person become a baker rather than a banker, a firefighter instead of a fashion designer or a doctor rather than a detective?

When students look back to reflect on their path to the University of Kansas School of Medicine, they often credit a single person who ignited their passion for science or inspired them to focus on a particular specialty.

Megan Krause thought about becoming a doctor before she learned to ride a bike. Family photos show her with a Fisher-Price™ stethoscope listening to her teddy bear’s heart. However, she also contemplated becoming a ballerina, an astronaut, and a cowboy.

These were all just childish dreams until she walked into Elaine Modine’s biology class as a freshman at Waubonsie Valley High School in Aurora, Ill.

“I thought she was the most brilliant person I had ever met, and I was never going to be able to keep up,” Krause said.

“The homework assignments were tough and required a lot of thinking, but because they were so difficult, I gained the confidence to pursue a dream,” Krause said. She remembers how Modine would use everyday objects to illustrate complex principles. She taught Krause about cell division with 23 pairs of socks to represent chromosomes.

Krause fell in love with how cells and organ systems worked. As a sophomore, Modine let her sneak into a senior genetics course, where the students got to work on the Human Genome Project in conjunction with Loyola University.

“Ms. Modine’s most important lesson was that you never reach a point where you know all you need to know, so you have to dedicate yourself to learning,” Krause said. “I don’t know anything truer about medicine.”

Why does one person become a baker rather than a banker, a firefighter instead of a fashion designer or a doctor rather than a detective?

Curtis Mick was sure that he would become an engineer – until he signed up for an engineering internship in the field during his sophomore year at college. The work was too detached and impersonal for him. So he took stock of other careers that had piqued his interest during his education.

What came back most clearly was Virginia Montgomery’s science classes at Osborne High School in Osborne, Kan.

It was a small, rural school, but Montgomery managed to convey a sense of connection to the larger world. She taught him the importance of being a good steward of the environment and its inhabitants.

She helped students form an ecology club and got them involved with a statewide Eco-Meet competition and the national Canon Envirothon.

“She made learning fun,” said Mick. He recalls the puns she taught students to help them remember scientific principles and singing the DNA song in rounds:





Mick tries to inject that sense of fun into his studies at KUMC.

But it’s not just inspiring teachers that can lead someone to medical school. Megan Dunn is in a seven-year combined medical degree and PhD program in geriatric neurology because of her grandmother, Carlotta Koczorowski, who had Alzheimer’s disease. Dunn saw firsthand how her grandmother and family struggled with the disease.

But she also saw how much cheer her grandmother could still contribute and enjoyed listening to the stories she told.

“I learned that despite having a neurodegenerative disease, each patient still has something to give,” said Dunn, who hails from Sylvania, Ohio. “My grandmother has given me a passion for a group of people that many in the medical field would rather avoid.”

For Shannon Grabosch, what first piqued her interest in medicine was a brain tumor – her own.

At the age of six, she started going through puberty. An MRI revealed a brain tumor on her pituitary gland. She didn’t understand what was happening to her and was unhappy with her doctors because they didn’t explain her condition to her.

“I wanted to make sure other children had a better experience, and I vowed to become a pediatric endocrinologist even though I couldn’t spell it at the time,” Grabosch said.

“My theory about life is that it is like the carnival game where you drop a ball at the top and watch it hit obstacles on the way down,” she said. “These obstacles can hold you up for a bit and send you in a different direction.”

Whether personal experience, a loved one, or a talented teacher provided inspiration, most medical students have one thing in common – a willingness to put that catalyst to work. +