Carter Head is a second-year Medical student at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He participated in PhD Plus Consulting module in 2019-2020.
Over summer, Carter participated in the Propel program, UVA's new project-based learning program designed to gain valuable skills and solve real-world problems for clients. PhD Plus supports the program, primarily for experiential learning of graduate students towards career preparation in Consulting.
Q. What are your career aspirations?
I began my second year of Medical school in early August. I am acutely interested in healthcare and how healthcare systems operate. I hope to use the skills that I am developing in medical school and from my experiences during the Propel program to improve my care for patients, as well as help to improve delivery of healthcare at a systemic level. In addition to obtaining my medical degree, I am considering pursuing an MBA for a holistic education, while at UVA.
Q. Please summarize your experience in the Propel program of project-based learning.
Propel provided opportunity to participate in team-based projects sourced through employer partners and local Charlottesville start-ups. The Propel program first came onto my radar after other opportunities for the summer fell through, due to COVID. I was placed on a project focused on building a digital transformation strategy for Fluvanna county. My team was composed of current UVA students as well as a mentor who was a UVA alum working in consulting. Even though the circumstances under which I arrived at the Propel program were far from ideal, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I had a great time working with my team over the course of two weeks on our strategy proposal. Given the short timeline, it was fast-paced and challenging. I had the opportunity to work with UVA students studying a wide variety of subjects which created a great depth of perspective and skill sets for our team. Furthermore, I found it rewarding to work on a project focused on helping the larger Central Virginia community - getting to learn more about this area and meeting new people who live here!
Q. What professional skills did you develop through this experience?
This project was particularly challenging due to the necessity to be completely virtual in this time of COVID. Our team had to work together quickly to develop good communication strategies across virtual platforms in order to ensure that we were on target to complete our deliverables in a timely fashion. Additionally, we had the opportunity to work directly with our client, Fluvanna county, over the course of the project - developing client-facing skills. Finally, teams had the opportunity to develop a final proposal for their digital transformation strategies and present them at the end of the experience to a panel of judges comprised of employer partners and alumni.
Q. How has this project-based experiential learning assisted in your career development and planning?
It was a great opportunity to practice a wide variety of skills that I will carry forward into my career. First, we had to build teamwork. I was placed on a team with people that I had never met, and we had to quickly develop mutual trust, good communication, and shared leadership in order to work efficiently and effectively. This was compounded with opportunities to further develop communication skills through client-facing and proposal presentation. Our project was focused on digital transformation, something that I did not have a great deal of experience with, and I was challenged to learn quickly about this new subject to answer the question placed before us by the client. Synthesizing new knowledge and making connections to what you already know is something that we are doing a lot in medical school and it was great to practice the skill in another setting.
Q. What advice would you give your peers on utilizing PhD Plus project-based learning and other experiential learning opportunities for career development?
The PhD Plus opportunities have been a great chance to learn skills that are applicable in any field; skills like teamwork, communication, leadership, and critical thinking. I got the opportunity to work on a project that was addressing a real problem within our community which was so rewarding. Plus, the project was a lot of fun! I had a great time connecting with other UVA students on my team. Go Hoos! I would highly recommend this program to any student within the graduate or professional schools here at UVA.