Two Things I Love

Eric Tannenbaum, a 2008 U-M graduate from Naperville, Illinois, is completing his first year of medical studies. Tannenbaum was co-captain of Michigan’s wrestling team, a four-time NCAA Academic All-American and two-time Big Ten Champion. He was inducted into the U-M’s prestigious Order of Angell in 2006.

“Jon Sekiya is the wrestling team’s orthopaedic physician, and I met him when I wrestled as an undergrad. When I got into the Medical School, I e-mailed him. He wrote back and said if I was ever interested in watching surgery … Well, I took him up on his offer and shadowed him one day from seven in the morning to seven at night, watching arthroscopic knee and shoulder surgery. He explained everything and answered all my questions. It was such a great experience — so different from anatomy class.

“Then I went home, watched online the lectures I’d missed that day, and went to bed. It was such a cool day. I almost wish I could be in the OR operating right now. There are a lot of things I can see myself doing, but I think I want to do orthopaedic surgery. It would be great to combine athletics and medicine — the two things I love.”

—Eric Tannenbaum

Interview by Whitley Hill | Photo by J. Adrian Wylie