ASHLEY EVANS OP/ED EDITOR
Ed Westen plays a game with his pre-med students at Wartburg.
The game starts junior year. Rules include warning students about the mastery required to do well on the Medical College Admissions Test, pushing them to their limit and giving occasional pep talks.
“I have to play this kind of game of making them frantic but not ready to jump off the edge. That’s a hard thing to do,” Westen said.
Westen, Assistant Professor of Biology at Wartburg, demands this kind of dedication and excellence from his students and advisees to help them clarify what they truly want to do in the game of life.
His job description includes teaching anatomy and physiology, senior biology research and history of western medicine as well as advising over 50 students.
The main task, he said, is to ask difficult questions of his advisees to see if they are prepared for medical school.
He also has them make firm statements about the most important things in their lives.
Westen said his goal is to get students where they want to go in life in everyway he is qualified to.
This passion has helped the biology department achieve a 92 percent placement rate for students in medical school after graduation.
The kind of dedication necessary for that percentage is visible to other faculty, like his roommate and chemistry professor, Denis Drolet, who said he sees Westen behind the scenes in preparation mode.
“He’s real committed. The amount of time he pours into [the students] exceeds just about any faculty member I’ve ever seen,” Drolet said.
The commitment could stem from Westen’s disapproval of suggesting a “plan B” when students’ initial plans don’t work out.
“I hate that. There shouldn’t be a ‘plan B,’ there should be a ‘make plan A happen,’” he said.
Peter Ostiguy, a bio-chemistry major and Westen advisee, said it is not only Westen’s dedication to his students’ futures that set him apart at Wartburg, but also his intelligence.
“He has the unusual ability to be well-spoken on just about any topic, coming off more brilliant than most,” he said. “It’s quite intimidating.”
Westen said he hopes he comes across as intimidating to most of his students, using it as another strategy in his game. He said students learn from those they want to be like or think are successful, like their professors, before eventually realizing the only people they need to satisfy are themselves.
Students must decide if his intimidation factor is real or just a façade.
While Westen said he understands the mentality of professors who want their students to fear, love and hate them all at the same time, he can’t help but be impressed with his students’ genius and work ethic.
“I hate it when students graduate and they go away,” he said. “The relationship is much harder on me than it is on the students.”
This might not always be the case in the future. Although he received tenure this year, Westen said his career will go wherever his personal life takes him.
With a recent engagement, he said the most important focus in his life is who he is with and the life that they create together.
Although Westen’s future at Wartburg isn’t certain, he said he is happy with the relationships and career he has made.
“There are things about my job I would change, so it’s not perfect. But I don’t know of any job that is closer to perfect,” he said.
Then he added, “I do think it’d be kind of cool to be the number two starting pitcher for the Cubs,” proving mind games with the students aren’t the only games he enjoys playing.