Maciej Padowski, Oakton Alum '10Servant-leader supporting his communities Throughout his education and career, Oakton alum Maciej Padowski, M.D. has compassionately cared for his patients and the community. He’s organized blood and bone marrow drives, volunteered his medical expertise and language interpreting, and founded a free pop-up medical clinic.
“I think that servant leadership is leading by example, being willing to do things that you would ask others. So if you’re trying to motivate your team to do things a certain way that you actually do it yourself and that you’re showing people, ‘look this is how you do it; you can do it too.’
Seeing the way you can help people in the emergency room first-hand: immediately in the moment. In certain cases you can literally bring them back to life. You get them to where they need to be transferred or to a higher level of care. You can really help people in the moment. It is really a big thing. I feel humbled that I can help them, that I'm even in this position. I feel like I need to give back – that it’s my duty to give back in a way as well. I like to be relatable to people. I don’t like having a big disconnect between patient and doctor.
I want people to feel a sense of caring. That they get a good experience. That everyone’s treated equally – where they’re from, who they are, or if they’re homeless or not – it’s important to me that we treat everybody kindly and with respect.”
Discovering (and rediscovering) himself at aakton Padowski credits his parents, wife, family and faith on his way to becoming the Medical Director of the Emergency Department at Ascension Saint Joseph - Elgin Hospital. His academic journey brought him twice to Oakton College.
“So initially, the first time, I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do, so I took some basic classes. And then I ended up going to Columbia College Chicago for music management and composition. After that I did some temp jobs – office type of work. I was doing music on the side, but not really as a career. I still needed a regular job, but I didn’t like what I had been doing. I didn’t want to be stuck in an office all day.
I re-evaluated things at that time, and what I potentially would want to do. I’ve always liked to figure things out and investigate things. And so, I thought maybe some type of medical career would be good for me. I started volunteering at places like the ER in Skokie. It sounds kind of crazy at the time because I had no medical experience, but I figured why not just give it a try and see what happens. So that’s what brought me back to Oakton. I had to get science classes to even apply to medical school. So that’s what I did. I went back to Oakton, and I got all my science credits.”
A word to fellow career-changers “You can change careers, and you can develop yourself and grow. And then, if you are motivated enough to do it, you can do anything – you use your resources that they have available at Oakton. You don't have to go to a major university to do big things. You can still get started at Oakton and go wherever you want from there.”
