I am passionate about the advocacy work for Marfan and related disorders that I do. Getting to be a wife and mother, and do volunteer work within the connective tissue disorders community…? I am living my dream.

A few weeks ago, a friend told me about the Mayo Clinic Social Media Center conference. It’s a week-long conference in the fall that is all about social media in medicine. Mayo offers an all-expenses-paid scholarship to 3 patient advocates/caregivers a year, through a writing competition.

Basically, essays are submitted and there is a voting period of a few weeks. The 15 essays with the most votes are sent to a committee, who reviews them for content, style, the applicant’s current reach, as well as their ability to help others using what they’ve learned from the conference. The committee will select 3 winners.

I want to go to this conference so, so, so, so, so much! I want to learn how to use social media platforms more efficiently. I want to talk to medical professionals and find out how they like to receive information from patient advocates. I want to bring back information to the National Marfan Foundation, where we are working to better utilize social media to reach our diverse patient population.

And so I’m asking all of you, please vote for my essay! Please spread the word on your social media networks. Here’s how to vote:
1) Click here to go to my essay.
2) Register for an account (it’s really easy!)
3) At the END of the post, under the yellow bar that says “tags,” you’ll find a “like” button with a star next to it. Click it! (Note: this is not a Facebook like button. Facebook likes don’t count. It MUST be this one at the bottom of the post.)
4) If you feel so inclined, leave a comment. Positive comments and likes are both counted as votes.

Thank you so much! If you have any questions, please just ask!