Lorna Stewart, Class of 2005, examines a baby during a rotation at
Tallahassee Memorial. On the left is classmate Christie (Sain) Alexander.
(College of Medicine photo archive)
A BRAVE ‘GUINEA PIG’ FROM THAT
FIRST GRADUATING CLASS
Interview with Lorna Stewart, Class of 2005. Reprinted from the Spring 2010 issue
of FSU MED magazine.
As an undergrad I went to the Program in Medical Sciences office for advisement
on “What courses should I take to get into medical school,” and through
that process I got to know [Assistant Director] Helen Livingston and [Director]
Myra Hurt. Getting to know them, and knowing that they were the women
behind this school, is what boosted my confidence. It was a risk for me to do
that, but I thought it was worth it.
I don’t think I really had a full grasp on what it meant to go to an unaccredited
medical school until that first moment when we didn’t get the accreditation
and I went, “Oh, this isn’t what I thought it was going to be!”
We were in our LC [Learning Community], which is not the very nice LC
they have now. That was in the basement of the nursing school building. We had
our three or four dirty recliners and a couple of study rooms. It wasn’t a very big
room. The 30 of us [students] were there, a lot of our professors were there, and
the administration was there. I remember sitting in this room for a couple of
hours waiting for the news.
I can’t remember if anybody cried. I think we all probably felt like crying just
because we were so sure we had it and we’d done a good enough job. It was kind
of surreal. “Did that really just happen?” Nobody dropped out. Nobody jumped
ship when we didn’t get it the first time. We were all committed to the cause.
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