Abdi Temo: pursuing the intersection of medicine and tech



Abdi with Genesys Works - Twin Cities Executive Director Jeff Tollefson.



Young Professional Abdi Temo has always pictured himself helping others. With the guidance of Genesys Works and the learning opportunities afforded by his year-long internship at the Minnesota State College and Universities office, he is closer than ever to making this objective a reality. In fact, his IT experience has made him see new possibilities in using technology to fight disease. Here, he talks about his remarkable accomplishments and goals.

1.     Where are you going to college and how did you know it was the right fit?

I will be going to Gustavus Adolphus College in the Fall. I realized it was the right fit after I did an overnight visit and saw how the students were very close with each other and friendly, also class sizes are small which helps students get one on one attention from the professors.

2.     How are you getting the money to pay for college?

I applied and received a very good financial aid package from Gustavus, which includes the Dean’s scholarship, and Diversity scholarship. I am also in the process of applying to 15 outside scholarships and, I will hopefully win some of those.

3.     What are your career objectives?

My career plan is to develop advanced technological devices or their software to help fight diseases around the world. I chose this as my career, because I believe that we should all strive to better peoples’ lives and this felt like a perfect way for me to do that.

4.     How has your internship through Genesys Works helped you advance towards this goal?

Being around IT professionals and working with them on different problems shows me how they rely on each others’ knowledge to solve them. From this experience I came to realize in each profession people have to be able to work with others in order to achieve some goals.

5.     What has been your favorite thing about the Genesys Works program?

It is hard to choose a favorite thing about Genesys Works, because everything we have done in this program has been very educational and fun. But, If I had to choose one I would say the training we had in summer. Even though it was challenging and hard at times, we all helped and pushed each other to try our best and we got through it.