Not many 15-year-olds would willingly wake up at 5 a.m. to realize their dreams, but then again, Arden Hof is not your typical teen. Over the course of three days, Arden spent 22 hours job shadowing surgeons through Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola’s Career Shadowing Program in preparation for a regional competition for future health professionals.
Arden, a Gulf Breeze High School sophomore, started showing an interest in medicine when she was 10 years old. She asked her mom for a suturing training kit and spent her free time drawing anatomy. Since her freshman year, she has participated in HOSA Future Health Professionals, an organization that empowers students to become leaders in the health community.
Watching live surgeries isn’t for the faint of heart. Luckily, Arden was in her element in the operating room. On her first day, she observed a gastric surgery with Dr. Leonardo Villegas, a Sacred Heart surgical oncologist. Upon learning that Arden had an interest in neurosurgery, he connected her with his colleague, Dr. Maria Toledo, a neurosurgeon at Ascension Sacred Heart.
Other neurosurgeons Drs. Ann Carr and Frank Farhoki took Arden under their wing, giving her the opportunity to watch brain surgeries, including a Gamma Knife surgery to treat brain tumors and spine surgery.
Dr. Toledo said that whenever a student shadows her, she feels a duty to teach and inspire them. Growing up in Puerto Rico, Dr. Toledo had no female neurosurgeon role models. She forged her own path as the first female neurosurgeon in her native country.
“I feel like I’m paying it forward by training future healthcare professionals who will care for us one day,” she said. “Our profession requires years of education and training, but what we do is life-changing and worth the investment.”
Spending time with surgeons who shared her passion reinforced Arden’s desire to follow in their footsteps. When her mom picked her up from the hospital that day, Arden told her: “I was born to do this.”
At a recent regional HOSA competition, Arden gave a six-minute presentation about her immersive experience with Sacred Heart surgeons. She took home first place and will advance to the state competition in April.
High school and college students who are interested in applying to Sacred Heart’s Career Shadowing Program can email Jessica Barker at jessica.barker@ascension.org.