Class of 2005 members Michael Hernandez, Shayla Gray and Garrett
Chumney. (College of Medicine photo archive)
NOW I UNDERSTAND
Michael Hernandez (M.D. ’05)
In the process of applying to medical schools, I interviewed at several big
schools. The whole process just felt cold and impersonal. It made me feel like an
insignificant number. That is, until I interviewed at the FSU College of Medicine.
I knew that FSU’s medical school was more of a vision than a concrete reality.
We didn’t even have the foundation of a building. What we had was a group of
motivated individuals working together at making the vision of a new medical
school a reality. The one thing I knew for sure after the interview was that
I definitely mattered. I knew that the program wanted to make sure that I
succeeded. The fate of the medical school relied on the success of the 30 students
in the inaugural class. That is one main reason I chose FSU over other
medical schools.
Our journey took us from the basement of the nursing building, to portables,
to a high school, and later to regional campuses. I still find it ironic that the only
time we stepped into the current building for the College of Medicine was on
our graduation day.
As a small inaugural class, we functioned more like a family than a school.
We laughed together but also cried together. One experience stained into my
memory was the day we were denied accreditation after our first year of medical
school. We all thought that the first year was accredited through the PIMS program.
We soon found out that that first year was no longer accredited since we
were now a four-year program. Everyone was crushed. We were confused, angry
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