the opportunity to work one-on-one with my attendings and teachers in seeing
patients. Since many of the attendings were community physicians and surgeons,
we worked in their offices and participated in procedures with them, often without
other learners such as residents. This opportunity for learning was unique
and made us think like doctors early in our clinical years. The clinical experiences
I had during those years gave me an excellent clinical knowledge base for my
future residency program.
Being from a new medical school, residency programs did not yet know how
incredible we were or the quality of our medical education. We still had this to
prove. When Match Day came, I and many of my excellent medical school colleagues
found ourselves scrambling for a residency position. We were all successful
in finding good matches, just not our first choice necessarily. I remember Dr.
Michael Muszynski, the dean of the Orlando campus, making a call and finding
me an excellent spot in a pediatric residency program. We were always taken care
of and helped along the next step in our journey to being a physician.
We returned to the main FSU campus for our graduation May 21, 2005.
No longer was the medical school a trailer next to the College of Nursing, but
it was now a beautiful state-of-the-art medical school campus. What was built
both in the curriculum and physically during our four years was remarkable. I
remain indebted to the education I was given, which laid my knowledge foundation
as a physician. It was an honor to be a “pioneer” in paving the way for the
FSU College of Medicine classes that followed mine and the other new medical
schools that were established.
I am now a fetal-neonatal neurologist at Children’s National Hospital in
Washington, D.C. I am the fellowship director and have even had the privilege
to train a fellow in fetal neurology who graduated after me at the FSU
College of Medicine. My education has come full circle. •
78 | Breaking the Mold