How the AAMC is building a new generation of whole-hearted leaders

This article was developed following the July 2025 RISE event hosted by the AAMC.

Before you read on, find a pen and paper. Holding the pen in your nondominant hand, write: “I use my strengths every day” five times.

Awkward, isn’t it? Unnatural. Slow. Frustrating.

Now, switch to your dominant hand. Effortless. Smooth. Natural.

What’s the lesson here? This is a question at the heart of RISE, a one-of-a-kind leadership workshop for medical students led by the AAMC. At RISE, students representing more than half of all medical schools in the United States spend three days confronting challenging questions — but not the typical medical exam variety. The questions at RISE instead invite introspection:

• What story do you have to tell?
• What are your core values?
• What are your strengths?
• How can you recognize others’ differences as strengths?
• How can you connect more authentically with others?

Among the many lessons of RISE, the nondominant-hand writing activity teaches students the powerful practice of managing weaknesses and spotlighting their strengths. It’s a challenging yet essential concept for ambitious, intelligent students driven by success.

“Leaders know themselves — including knowing they can’t do everything alone,” explains Tom Hurtado, EdD, co-creator of RISE. “Your role as a leader is to build a team whose strengths complement your own, creating a balanced system to build a brighter future.”

“This is not a ‘prove-yourself’ space,” Hurtado emphasizes. That’s a comforting, but still challenging, notion for students familiar with imposter syndrome and preparing for residency interviews that often feel exactly like “prove-yourself” situations.

As another RISE faculty member puts it, “No one gets into medical school by accident.”

This reality drives the students to deeply engage with the RISE principles: Relationships, Influence, Self-awareness, and Effectiveness.

Over three transformative days, RISE flips the traditional script of medical education with storytelling techniques that encourage students to forge meaningful relationships, recognize their influence, enhance self-awareness, and cultivate effectiveness.

“Stories shape us,” explains Hurtado. “Connecting authentically with our own stories helps us discover purpose and meaning.”

Some students become trapped in telling stories they believe others expect. But Hurtado teaches them to be themselves.

“Your story is your brand,” he says. “If you understand your own story, you show up authentically in interviews, careers, and relationships. You bring vulnerability to the table, creating space for others to do the same.”

Throughout the weekend, RISE students bravely share profound moments from their journeys — missing the first day of medical school while stranded in Jamaica, overcoming homelessness, or comforting a patient in their final moments. Their stories are unique. They reveal resilience, purpose, and the crucial importance of maintaining humanity in a demanding field.

Hurtado developed the RISE curriculum in his role as the senior director of student affairs at the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at University of Utah. It includes tailored keynotes and interactive breakout sessions designed to equip students with essential leadership skills:

• Effective teamwork. Led by Tracey Pickard, MS Ed, AAMC director of learning and leadership development, students identify their temperament — Relater, Builder, Planner, or Adventurer — and recognize the necessity of building diverse teams. As one student reflects, “I realize now I need teammates who complement me, filling in my gaps.”
• Practical productivity. Students pinpoint “productivity thieves,” prioritize core values, and focus on what matters.
• Growth mindset. Group discussions explore confidence “busters” and “builders,” embracing a growth-oriented approach.
• Making the most of mentoring. Students learn the nuances of cultivating successful mentoring relationships, including how to establish, maintain, and thoughtfully conclude them.
• The learning leader. Students grapple with adaptive expertise. They learn skills to apply existing knowledge to unfamiliar situations and bridge the gap between research and clinical practice. From this, a key takeaway emerges: “I’m not here to prove myself; I’m here to improve myself.”

At a recent RISE event, small groups met twice daily to reflect, creating a safe space for honest conversation. In one poignant discussion, a student shares her disbelief at receiving an invitation to attend.

“I thought it was a mistake,” she said. “Why would they choose me?”

Vulnerability like this is ideal for sparking honest dialogue about confidence. Her peer students concluded that authenticity and honesty — not arrogance — distinguish compassionate, evolving doctors and true leaders.

By the end of the weekend, everyone in the room was transformed. Once strangers, students left as lifelong friends, deeply connected by shared vulnerability and mutual respect. The atmosphere felt lighter, clearer, and filled with insightful exchanges and genuine openness.

At the end of one session, Hurtado shared a letter his daughter Ruby had written to NASA:

“Dear NASA, I want to be an astronaut someday, but I’m afraid I’m not smart enough.”

After inviting everyone to respond to Ruby — silently, sincerely, and on their own — he instructed gently, “Now save that note as ‘Note to Self.’”

The message was clear: the words we give others are often those we need ourselves.

That activity encapsulates RISE: strength in authenticity, meaningful connection, and embracing vulnerability not as weakness, but as profound strength.

After three powerful days of learning together with the AAMC, medical students are no longer simply future physicians. They’ve become whole-hearted leaders who are ready to RISE.