超越高山

Aaron Lacy ’14 says it’s seeking experiences beyond his comfort zone that has shaped the kind of person he’s become.

其中一些经历包括成为一名学生运动员，在美国宇航局进行研究，以及在喜马拉雅山提供医疗服务。

野马的性能

When Lacy started at 皇冠体育 as a student-athlete in soccer and track, he didn’t have a plan for his future. 但通过他在课堂内外的经历，以及他的教授、教练和同学的指导，他的生活找到了方向，并找到了通往爱荷华大学医学院的道路。

“Aaron is self-motivated and has the ability to lead and work as a team player,” said Alesia Hruska, professor of biology. “As an academically talented, dependable, and compassionate person, I have every confidence that he will be a great doctor with a caring bedside manner.”

“It’s humbling to realize how much I relied on my mentors early on," said Lacy. “他们帮助我成长，把我推向极限。 毕业后的我和刚开始的时候完全不同了。”

美国宇航局约翰逊航天中心的研究

作为一名医科学生，莱西着迷于太空医学领域和失重状态下人体生理学的概念。

“I realized that as technology steadily advances, the limits of the human body may be what prohibit deep space travel unless we devote more time and research to studying how humans operate in space,” he says.

In spring 2018, NASA selected Lacy for an aerospace medicine rotation where he could learn from the field’s leading experts at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. 他与中性浮力实验室（Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory）的首席医师罗伯特·桑德斯（Robert Sanders）博士搭档。中性浮力实验室是用来训练宇航员进行太空行走的，同时也有一个高空高压舱。

“It was an incredible opportunity to have an inside view into how the human race is pushing its limits as a species,” Lacy says of the research that is examining ways to increase the time of useful consciousness for astronauts and aviators when exposed to a low-oxygen environment.

喜马拉雅地区的服务

Intrigued with global health, Lacy left his familiar environment to serve the people of the Zanskar Valley in Ladakh, India, the most isolated part of the Himalayas. 莱西毫不犹豫地说，长达一个月的轮岗是一个人在医学院能找到的独特的临床经历。

“I have worked in many emergency departments during my training, all of which have presented their own unique challenges and difficult environments, but no environment was as challenging as this,” said Lacy.

他们服务的诊所只能步行到达。 团队必须徒步穿越18300英尺的隘口，在海拔14000英尺的地方扎营，并在村庄之间旅行时携带所有的诊所和个人用品。 诊所的日子变化很大，一天给农民看病，第二天给僧侣看病，再一天给小学生看病。

“My biggest takeaway from the trip is the culture of Western medicine and how we feel we must fix everything," said Lacy. "但有时试图解决问题弊大于利，无论是在国内还是国外，所以我们应该在日常实践中谨慎行事。” 

医学实践

University of Iowa colleague Dr. Jacob Melendrez says Lacy is a skilled clinician, known for “treating everyone with respect, kindness, and caring—a tireless advocate for his patients and colleagues.” 由于莱西所代表的那种医生，爱荷华大学授予他伦纳德·托人道主义医学奖。

“When it came to patient care, I did not work with another provider, regardless of level of training, who cared more for his patients,” says Melendrez, who nominated Lacy for the award. “Aaron is compassionate and committed, hardworking and honest, and, if a family member of mine were sick, I would want them treated by someone whose clinical knowledge is surpassed only by their willingness to truly care for their patients—someone like Dr. Lacy.”

 艾奥瓦大学的同事伊森·克雷格博士也提名了莱西，他对此表示赞同。 “Aaron’s patience, intelligence, and empathy make him perfectly suited to be on the front lines of health care,” says Craig.

A combination of Lacy’s willingness to lend a helping hand and accept new challenges shape a career path that benefits others along the way.

“应用ing for rotations at the Johnson Space Center, seeing more patients than I feel comfortable with on shifts, and exploring new areas of the world are all things I had and have reservations about, but I put myself out there," said Lacy. "最后，我从不后悔，并从经历中成长。”

受皇冠体育同学启发

莱西在皇冠体育结识和共事的人是塑造他一生的关键人物，直到今天仍然如此。 他说，Ryan Bezy教授、Alesia Hruska教授、Joseph Nguyen教授、christopher Keuseman教授、Neil Bernstein教授、Anna Waterman教授和Dennis Dew教授在任何时候都参与了他人生和事业的转折点。 

在皇冠体育，莱西以预期的方式成长。 他学会了如何有效地管理自己的时间，并在领导和团队合作中成长。 But what he didn’t expect was how much he would grow emotionally and culturally.

"This has helped me in my medical career, too, seeing more similarities than differences in my patients.”

“Over my four years, I had the privilege to befriend and work with dozens of individuals from countries all around the globe—a wonderful opportunity to gain perspective on the human experience for someone who had lived in Iowa their entire life," said Lacy. "This has helped me in my medical career, too, seeing more similarities than differences in my patients.”

Lacy says he would be amiss if he didn’t mention how inspired he is to this day by his classmates “who have gone on to bigger and better things than me” as aspiring physicians (Ben Reinhart ’12, Allison Roe ’14, James Estipona ’14, and Nicole Morrow ’15), dentists (Megan Vogel Timm ’14 and Meghan Nelson ’14), chiropractors (Kodey Salow), physical therapists (Brooklyn Schrader ’13 and Taylor Helms ’13), physician and surgical assistants (Brady Gerber ’14 and Erica Soppe Reed ’14), pharmacists (Kelsey Kernan ’14), and researchers (Matthew Purl ’14).

正如莱西在6月份的年度捐赠者感谢晚宴上的演讲中提到的那样，医学院的平均录取率是40%，其他医学专业的录取率也差不多。 

“Nearly 100 percent of this cohort got into the graduate school program or career of their choice and are now actively practicing in that field, which is remarkable,” he says.