Last Tuesday and Thursday evening, 65 second-year medical students chatted with 50 different UF physicians about specialties available to them during the third-annual “specialty speed dating” event. Photo by Sarah Kiewel

It’s something like “speed dating,” only instead of getting to know a stranger, students are getting to know a specialty – a medical specialty, that is.

For many members of the Class of 2011, the third-annual specialty speed dating event provided second-year medical students their first look into the diversity of specialties the University of Florida College of Medicine offers.

“We don’t have much exposure during our first year of medical school,” said second-year student Julie Clift, who helped organize the event. “It’s more book work, but through this event, we hope to expose students to the different types of residencies.”

The event did just that, according to Clift.

Sixty-five students attended last Tuesday and Thursday nights’ specialty speed dating. Many of the 65 students who attended the recent speed-dating sessions grabbed slices of pizza and got to know more than 21 specialties represented by 50 UF physicians.

Beverly L. Vidaurreta, Ph.D., program director of the College of Medicine’s student counseling and development office, was pleased when she looked around the room and saw so many COM alumni returning to speak to the students.

“It’s great to look around and see a lot of our own graduates who are now physicians here come back and want to talk to students,” Vidaurreta said. “We also hope to get students excited about starting rotations in July.”

Understanding that some doctors are destined to work with kids and some are meant to be surgeons, specialty speed dating is the first step to help clarify that, Vidaurreta explained.

“More than anything, we don’t want our students to go through medical school and be miserable once they start practicing,” she added. “We want them to do exactly what they love to do.”