To Dr. Hurt, my deepest gratitude for your genius, your vision and your fearless,
steadfast, unwavering support of all of us. You gave us the strength to blaze
these trails. Without you, none of this would have been possible. You truly are
the mother (or godmother) of our medical school, and I hope we’ve made you
proud. •
Sarah (Fein) Mulkey is hooded by Orlando Campus Dean Michael
Muszynski. On the right is Myra Hurt.
(Photo by Bill Lax, FSU Photo Services)
THIS SCHOOL BUILT MY ‘KNOWLEDGE FOUNDATION’
Sarah (Fein) Mulkey (M.D. ’05)
I remember receiving a phone call from Dr. Helen Livingston in the spring
that I was accepted, and I cried with joy. I felt it a true honor. I was going to be
one of 30 “pioneers” for Florida in forming a new medical school, and that was
such an incredible opportunity! It was exciting and new for us all.
With us only being a class of 30, we all made a tight bond that I can’t imagine
would be quite the same for any other medical school class. The 30 of us can
uniquely share in the memory of attending a medical school that was housed in a
trailer next to the College of Nursing. We would hike across campus to our basement
gross anatomy laboratory. From that humble beginning, a state-of-the-art
medical school was established and became a model for other schools.
Since we were a small school, we knew our professors, each other and the
leaders of our school well. It felt like a family and that we all were very important
to its mission and had a role in the development and success of the school
that was being built as we went each year in our education. I was chosen to
go to Orlando for my clinical years. During my clinical rotations I often had
Breaking the Mold | 77