Four Concordia College students participated in the Mayo Innovation Scholars Program (MISP), an interdisciplinary experiential learning opportunity. It is a collaboration between selected Minnesota private colleges, the Mayo Clinic, and Medical Alley early-stage medical companies.
The members who made this year’s Concordia team are:
Annika Pratt ’22, biology, computer science, and Spanish
Josephine Walk ’23, mathematics
Bretton Badenoch ’23, biology, chemistry, and neuroscience
Kevin Ness ’24, finance
Steve Endrud ’88, manager of Mergers and Acquisitions at Fairview Health Services, was the graduate student team leader. Dr. Krys Strand, associate professor of biology, and alumna Charissa (Horner) Quinlan ’13, director of program management at Aldevron, were the team mentors.
In Fall 2021, the team was given a product or innovation currently in development to research and examine its clinical mechanisms, marketplace viability, and potential applications.
“Beyond the technical skill development inherent within the program’s rigorous demand, there were several moments throughout the program’s journey that provided learning experiences,” Ness said. “Throughout the research process, there were several roadblocks we had encountered, which caused our team to go back to the drawing board.”
The team then presented their findings to the Mayo Clinic in the spring, with the presentation preparation serving as another opportunity to learn.
“It kept us accountable for giving our honest, well-researched feedback,” Walk said. “The four of us had different majors, research experience, and work styles, but over the course of our project we learned how to both play to our individual strengths and ask valuable questions about each other’s content specialties. I am confident that these skills will be helpful in any future job or project any of us takes on.”
MISP was developed in 2006 by retired Medtronic executive John Meslow, who is a former member of Concordia’s Board of Regents. With financial support from the Medtronic Foundation, the Mayo Clinic partnered with several private Minnesota colleges and universities to assist with the assessment of new products or innovations while providing research and leadership development opportunities for students.
Strand called MISP an exemplar high-impact practice in higher education.
“It brings together curious and tenacious students from multiple disciplines to work on cutting-edge innovations developed by professionals at the No. 1 hospital in the nation and trusted global leader in biomedical innovation and patient care — the Mayo Clinic,” Strand said. “Add strong graduate student team leaders and invested faculty mentors and you have a recipe for an outstanding learning and professional development experience, as well as very helpful analysis and reports that the Mayo Clinic use to determine next steps for their innovations. All of these efforts lead to improvements in health outcomes for patients.”
For Pratt, the experience taught her how to approach a project with little guidance, giving her an opportunity to practice leadership and teamwork skills.
Badenoch said the most impactful lesson was taking knowledge from research and creating a marketable product.
“As someone who spends most of their time in the science world, this was an exciting opportunity to broaden my horizon and skill set,” Badenoch added.
Note: Team members signed confidentiality agreements not to talk about the product or innovation being researched.