COM Student of the Month – Gage Rensch, first-year medical student

Editor’s Note: Each month, InterCOM will highlight a “Student of the Month” from the College of Medicine. Students will be featured for their participation in activities outside of medical school and for making a difference in the community. The goal is to recognize students for what they are doing and to encourage other students to get involved in the community. After all, medical school should be much more than studying.  

Personal:

Name: Gage Rensch
Hometown: Omaha
Program/Year: College of Medicine, First-year

Education:
Creighton Preparatory High School, Omaha
Rockhurst University, Kansas City, Mo.

Activities:

  • I participate in several campus organizations: American Medical Association, Phi Rho Sigma Medical Society, and various medical specialty interest groups.
  • I have begun volunteering at the UNMC SHARING Clinic, which provides affordable health care and human services to members of the Omaha community in need.
  • A year ago, I participated in a summer of alcohol research through UNMC at the VA Medical Center. 

Hobbies:

  • Everything involving music – listening, writing, singing, guitar, concerts.
  • I golf, hunt and fish.
  • I am always playing with my parent’s two dogs: Moose, an 8-year-old English lab, and Moxie, a 5-month-old Australian shepherd.

Staying Balanced: 

  • I eat healthy meals prepared by my mother, workout and participate in intramurals throughout the week.
  • I spend time with friends and family outside of medicine. 
  • I majored in philosophy and biology in college and continue to try to align both disciplines during my medical studies.

List three things people may not know about you:

  • During my undergraduate years, I studied at the largest chimpanzee reserve in Africa located in Chimfunshi, Zambia.  While I was there, I touched a lion and saw a black mamba, Africa’s deadliest snake, in the wild.
  • I remember my dreams every night…way too much of them. I still live at home, so I’m just down the hall from my parents in case I have a nightmare.
  • I can sing and play guitar.