Three MSOE students traveled to Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, for the Kern National Network’s (KNN) annual Student Learners Conference. The conference gives students the opportunity to discuss their academic experiences, address challenges they may encounter as future health practitioners and envision a brighter future for the health industry.

Attendees Zachary Burke ’27, Owen Gendrich ’26 and Brooke Stanley ’26 previously enrolled in MSOE’s Health Explorers Pathway, in conjunction with the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW). The pathway gave them the opportunity to explore different health professions offered at MCW through presentations, conversations and workshops with professionals and peers. They joined members of MCW’s KNN Student Chapter at the conference.

Both Gendrich and Stanley are chemical and biomolecular engineering majors with plans to attend medical school upon graduating from MSOE this spring. They both enjoyed the roundtable discussions with students from universities across the country who also are obtaining degrees in health care fields.

“Attending this conference allowed me to network with other health profession students to deepen my understanding of other healthcare systems across the U.S., including students and staff at Medical College of Wisconsin where I will be a medical student this summer,” said Stanley.

For Gendrich, the conference gave him insights into the medical school application process, and he enjoyed discussing with his peers ways to combat burnout in the healthcare system.

“As one of the few undergraduate students at the conference, the older medical students were extremely forthcoming and didn't hesitate to give me advice for the upcoming medical school application process,” said Gendrich. “These students were also nothing short of brilliant and this, coupled with their kind demeanor, makes me extremely confident that this is a group of people I one day want to work with, but also that the field of medicine will continue to flourish.”

Burke, a user experience (UX) major at MSOE, was interested in the impact he can have as a UX designer of different tools that healthcare professionals use daily. His experience at the conference helped him gain such knowledge through his discussions with future healthcare providers.

“The domain knowledge and empathy I built at this conference will directly translate into my work,” said Burke. “It equips me to design with a more developed view of the healthcare ecosystem, ensuring that the solutions I help create can support medical professionals and, hopefully, improve patient outcomes. It's inspiring to see how many people from so many places are striving to make our world a brighter place in different fields of medicine.”

In addition to supporting this conference and student groups nationwide, the KNN supported the development of a new degree at MSOE, the Bachelor of Science in health innovation. The collaborative degree program between MSOE and MCW allows students to pursue either a direct-to-career or direct-to-graduate school pathway, while deepening their understanding of MSOE Mindset and what it means to flourish in the health professions.