Opportunities for Leadership:

Education of a

Foreign Medical Graduate

Surendra K. Varma, M.D.Associate Dean of Graduate Medical EducationTed Hartman Endowed Chair in Medical EducationUniversity Distinguished Professorand Vice-Chairman of PediatricsProfessor of Physiology and Health Services ResearchResidency Program DirectorDepartment of PediatricsTexas Tech University Health Sciences Center

Coming to America

Goals

Further education

Desire to excel

3

You are an ambassador for your country. If you do good, people will appreciate it. If you have no good work ethic, people will say that all Indians are like it.

- My Father

Beginning

Boston

Learning Curve

Culture

Language

Adjustment to Environment

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“Nothing is as necessary for success as the single minded pursuit of an objective”

Frederick W. Smith

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“The starting point of all achievement is desire”

Napoleon Hill

8

Stay in mainstream. Do not migrate/flock to your ethnic group at workplace

Be proud of your heritage

Influence

Mentors

Peers

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“Six essential qualities are the key to success: sincerity, personal integrity, humility, courtesy, wisdom, charity”

Dr. William Menninger

Lubbock

12

“He who would climb the ladder must begin at the bottom”

English Proverb

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Diligence

Drive

Collegiality

Respect Cultural & Religious Diversity

Work Ethic

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Clinical Skills

Education

Research

Administration

Balance

Protected Time

Research

Personal Development

Family

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Balance between family and work

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Involve yourself in but do not over commit

Involve in:

Departmental Activities

Institution’s Activities

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“Make service your first priority, not success, and success will follow”

“Secrets of Effective Leadership”

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THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX

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•Community Service

•Child Advocacy

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Community Service

•Opportunities

•Resources

e.g. Diabetes Camp for Children with Diabetes

Resource – Rotary Club

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“All politics is local”

Tip O’Neill

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Start at local level

Regular Participation Is Essential

“Eighty Percent Success is Showing Up”

-Woody Allen

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Volunteer your time and services

Fulfill Commitments with Sincerity and Integrity

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Next Step – Participate in State Society Leadership as your local representative

- Listen, Observe and Volunteer

- Avail Leadership Opportunities

“Many People Have Gone Further Than They Thought They could Because Someone Else

Thought They Could.”

- Unknown

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Child Advocacy

•Need Based

•Personal Commitment

e.g. – Newborn Screening for congenital Hypothyroidism in Texas

Resource – State Senator

Target – State Legislature

Bill – Passed 1977

– Money Appropriated 1979

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Next Step – Avail Opportunities for Leadership at National Level.

Keep focus of your expertise. Do not overspread yourself

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National Level

- Listen, Observe & Volunteer

“You Can Observe a Lot By Watching”

- Yogi Berra

- Keep your Ego in check

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“The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated”

William James

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“No amount of study or learning will make a man a leader unless he has the natural qualities of one.”

-Archibald Wavell“London Times” February 17, 1941

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Do your home work“People don’t care how much you know until they

know how much you care.”

-Unknown

Volunteer your services for things you can do effectively.

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Express your opinion in a gentle fashion

“Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endless”

- Mother Teresa

Listen to other points of views“In a Room Full of People There May be Persons Wiser Than You.”

- My Father

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‘It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.”

- Mahatma Gandhi

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Success is that old ABC – “Ability, Breaks, and Courage”

- Charles Luckman

In my case add luck as well

Success vs Failure

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“Leadership is a combination of strategy and character. If you must be without one, be without the strategy.”

-Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf

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Do not blame others

Do not take shelter behind Ethnicity Bias

Try to get over it

“But man is Not Made for Defeat. A Man Can Be Destroyed But Not Defeated.”

- Ernest Hemingway

Failure

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“No man fails who does his best”

Orison Swett Marden

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WHAT NEXT?

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IS THERE A GLASS CEILING?

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I DO NOT KNOW

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“The very essence of leadership is that you have to have a vision.”

-Theodore Hesburgh

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“Learn from yesterday, live for today,

hope for tomorrow.”

- Anon

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“No man succeeds without a good woman behind him. Wife or mother, if it is both, he is twice blessed indeed”

-Harold MacMillan, 1963

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“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”

-Robert Frost

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Mentors

Raghubir P. Varma (My Father)

Charles Janeway, M.D.

John F. Crigler, Jr., M.D.

John B. Stanbury, M.D.

John D. Crawford, M.D. Deceased

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“I want to thank you for making this day necessary”

- Yogi Berra