Auria Lee, Class of '25: Adventure, research and leadership shape future doctor

A lifelong calling

Lee, who grew up in Montana and Oregon and graduated from South Eugene High School, said she developed her interest in medicine on her own.

"I always had a sense that I was going to be a doctor, even though I didn't have any doctors in my family or around me," she said. "As I got older, I realized more and more how medicine aligns with who I am. You have the ability to significantly affect patients' lives and play a leadership role in their care, and health care is something that everybody in the world needs."

Medical care is particularly important in rural areas like Montana, she added. "There's a lot of need for medical doctors,” she said. “I was excited to make a difference in communities like mine. I'm interested in living there when I finish medical school."

Lee said she had few interactions with health-care providers until coming to the Honors College at Oregon State. "The dean helped connect me with some Honors College alumni," she said. "They really helped show me what practicing medicine looks like. They're absolutely amazing physicians, so being able to shadow them was definitely influential."

She chose Oregon State over a small private school in Texas.

"Oregon State had so many opportunities," said Lee. "Just the size of the school, being so big, really attracted me. I just thought with so many opportunities at Oregon State that I would be really happy in Corvallis. I found it easier to focus on my studies because I have the support I need here."

Growth through outdoor leadership

Although she served as a learning assistant in advanced anatomy and physiology, it was a Wilderness First Aid and Mountaineering course that proved most influential. It led to her involvement in Oregon State's Adventure Leadership Institute. The 78-year-old institute provides students with outdoor adventures and leadership education.

"It made me realize how much the outdoors could add to my own personal growth and the relevance it has to my future career as a doctor and a scientist," said Lee, who also earned a certificate in Adventure Leadership.

"I leaned into that and took an awesome class called Principles in Adventure Leadership with Sheila Evans," she added. "I learned about facilitation of adventure, risk management and other paradigms. It was cool to see the parallels between that and how it will look to walk a patient through a challenging or scary time and have that deeper level of presence."

It also helped her overcome her own fears and be more mentally grounded, she added.

"I was scared and so much was unfamiliar, but learning to navigate that made me a lot more resilient," she said. "I even climbed to the summit of Mount Hood. That shows a lot of growth as a result of what I've learned from the Adventure Leadership Institute."

Global experience, local impact

Lee spent August and September of 2023 as an observer and teacher at Ramaiah Medical College in Bengaluru, India. She taught English, anatomy and CPR at the school's program for paramedics.

"I learned a lot from the culture," she said. "I learned how to deliver information across language and culture barriers, just some very important communications principles. I also made some significant connections.

"One of the things observing at the medical school taught me was the importance of community-based care and an expanded health-care model," she added. "The United States is lacking in that regard. We're pretty centered on doctors. However, as more and more scarcity makes it harder to see doctors, I can see those concepts becoming important to apply.

"Overall, I learned how to be extremely adaptable and see through other people's points of view," she said.

The experience also inspired her to pursue becoming a birth doula and provide physical and emotional support and information to parents during the birth process.

A leader on campus and beyond

Back in Corvallis, Lee co-founded the Oregon State chapter of Students for Health Humanities, an international group. Chapter members worked with local nonprofits, hosted speakers and generally explored the holistic and humanities side of medicine.

Lee was in the Accelerated Master’s Platform for public health during her senior year. Part of her summer plans include finishing her master's degree in public health online. She also plans to return to Michigan Medicine, the academic medical center of the University of Michigan, where she pursued an internship in cardiovascular medicine last summer.

She conducted registry-based medical research, resulting in a project on the practical and ethical considerations in non-surgical management of acute Type A aortic dissection (where the inner layer of the main artery carrying blood from the heart tears and creates a new channel between the layers of the aorta).

The program emphasizes medical decision-making. This year, she will help manage the program.

Then there is the matter of medical school. She is still deciding between programs.

"I love emergency medicine and family medicine," Lee said. Then again, she added, she won't really know until she gets to medical school. "I can't know what will be the best fit," she said.

Wherever her medical education and career take her, Lee said she laid a solid foundation for it all during her undergraduate years in Corvallis.

"Every step along the way, Oregon State has had so many opportunities for me," she said.