My name is Jake Drobner, and I’m a fourth-year medical student at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. I had a great experience attending the Mid-Atlantic Section conference of the AUA 2023 Annual Meeting, and I wanted to share my top takeaways as a medical student.

First, the meeting was informative and fascinating—I listened to presentations from experts on exciting topics such as the management of high-grade T1 bladder cancer in the era of the bacillus Calmette-Guérin shortage and best practices for penile implants in gender-affirming phalloplasty. I also enjoyed several valuable nonclinical talks, like surgical ergonomics and how to get involved in medical missions.

Second, I got to meet several of my peers from other medical schools and residency programs, so Mid-Atlantic AUA served as a great way to build connections with people I’ll likely see again on the interview trail and possibly even in residency.

Lastly, the conference was a reminder that urologists are fun! Seeing teams of young urologists compete to answer trivia in the resident’s bowl was an entertaining way to kick off the conference weekend. One of my old bosses always said, “You have to take your work very seriously, but don’t take yourself too seriously,” and I think that held true at Mid-Atlantic AUA.