Words of Wisdom: How one message from alumnus to student forged a meaningful connection
“Always remember how you feel right now, your gratitude, your sense of wonder and awe, and your excitement to care for your first patient. It will help you get through the tough times.”
- Bobby Yanagawa (MD ’08, PGME Cardiac Surgery)
It was the MD Program orientation week at the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine, and first-year student Catherine Nie held a card imprinted with this message in her hands.
She was seated in historic Burwash Dining Hall along with about 280 classmates for the traditional MD student welcome breakfast hosted by dean Lisa Robinson (MD ’91, PGME Internal Medicine). Nie had just been handed an envelope marked Alumni Words of Wisdom and was instructed to open it and read the message inside.
As she started to absorb the words, she looked around at the other students reading their messages in this Hogwarts-like setting, and it started to sink in — this was really happening. She had made it into medical school.
“It was a surreal, pinch-me moment,” she says. “I literally had tears in my eyes.”
Nie had known she wanted to be a physician since she was a child. At age 13 she was diagnosed with scoliosis and frequently visited the McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton for scans, bracing and other appointments. She eventually received spinal fusion surgery and now has two titanium rods and 20 screws in her spine.
The experience could’ve been traumatic, but Nie has fond memories of the health care professionals who took care of her during that time.
“I had some incredible doctors that really made a difference in my life,” she says. “I knew I wanted to be that doctor for someone else.”
Now, sitting in Burwash Hall, Nie’s dreams of starting her medical education had come true and she was filled with excitement and gratitude — but she also felt a little apprehensive. Having grown up in Hamilton and completing her undergrad at McGill University in Montreal, Nie didn’t know a single person in Toronto. Receiving words of encouragement from someone who’d once been in her shoes felt special.
Nie looked up Yanagawa and contemplated reaching out to him to let him know how much she appreciated his message. After debating for a while, she finally decided that if he had taken the time out of his busy schedule to submit the message, he would appreciate a thank-you email.
She put her thoughts together and hit send.
*
Years earlier, in 2004, Yanagawa received his own good news about his acceptance to the U of T MD Program. At the time he was pursuing a post-doctoral fellowship in the UK, having recently completed his PhD in cardiovascular pathology at the University of British Columbia. He had tried unsuccessfully to get into medical school twice before, so knowing he’d just been accepted by one of the best in the world, he was on cloud nine.
Yanagawa had only been to Toronto once before for his application interview. He didn’t know a single person in the city, but he was excited to return to Canada for the next chapter in his medical education.
At his own Dean’s Breakfast that fall, he didn’t receive a card but he does remember the “words of wisdom” from alumnus Dean David Naylor (MD ’78), who gave welcoming remarks to the incoming class.
“It was one of the best speeches I’d heard in my life,” he says. “It was all about the past, present and future of medicine. I was so inspired, I decided to get involved in student governance.”
Yanagawa started by learning all 200 of his classmates’ names. His personal and professional network grew, and he eventually became his class president in first and fourth year as well as president of the medical society.
More than twenty years after he arrived in Toronto, Yanagawa is now the division head of cardiac surgery at St. Michael's Hospital (Unity Health) as well as the program director and associate professor of cardiac surgery at U of T.
He continues to be involved in the MD Program, delivering a heart-focused lecture to MD students each year. He also regularly responds to the annual call for Temerty Medicine alumni Words of Wisdom when it lands in his inbox. He likes to focus on gratitude, which he feels is a “superpower” for managing hardships.
“It’s almost like a force-field,” he says. “I think it’s important to talk about the hard times, about the B-side of the album, and reinforce the importance of gratitude.”
Yanagawa had never received a direct response to one of his Words of Wisdom messages before he heard from Nie, but he is no stranger to MD student mentorship. His contact info appears at the end of his undergraduate heart lecture presentation, and he invites students to reach out to him for help. Every year he has about 40 or 50 students shadow him in the operating room.
When the email arrived from Nie, Yanagawa knew how he would respond. He put his thoughts together and hit send.
*
Nie couldn’t believe it — Yanagawa was suggesting they grab coffee. She was flabbergasted that someone with such a busy schedule would offer his time to a stranger he only knew as the random recipient of his Words of Wisdom message.
Nie took the opportunity to instead ask Yanagawa about shadowing, and he was happy to oblige.
This past October, Nie spent about six hours in an operating room observing Yanagawa, watching him perform three separate heart surgeries. He had her stand on three stacked stools, tall enough to see over the drape with a clear view of the patient’s heart below. She admits she didn’t fully understand what was happening but was enthralled. She is hoping to return to observe Yanagawa later this year — after her cardiology unit, so she has a better understanding of what she’s seeing.
For now, Nie is interested in paediatrics but is keeping an open mind and welcoming opportunities as they present themselves. She is participating in the Longitudinal Academic Mentorship Program (LAMP), which paired her with a paediatrics resident at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), and she’s looking forward to shadowing him on his clinical rotations.
But no matter where her educational and career journeys take her, she vows to heed the advice shared by Yanagawa and will always remember the gratitude she felt on day one.
