“ There are only a few of us that I don’ t really know what’ s going on in their lives. I know a lot about a lot of us.
“ You go through something like that together that’ s so intense for so long, you almost can’ t help but have a bond that can’ t be broken.”
College of Medicine Dean Alma Littles remembers those early years well.
She was involved with the College of Medicine in a variety of roles, including chairing the curriculum committee, serving as the acting Tallahassee Regional Campus dean and the acting chair of the Department of Family Medicine and Rural Health.
Seven – Garrett Chumney, Alexander, Kerry Bachista, Fawn Harrison, Barré, Sachin Parikh and class president Nari Heshmati – have already been selected as members of the College of Medicine Alumni Hall of Fame.
“ It was not an easy matter at all, but they’ ve acquitted themselves well,” said Livingston, who retired for the second time from the College of Medicine in the summer of 2019, after shepherding the start-up Interdisciplinary Medical Sciences undergraduate pathway program.“ And they helped the classes coming behind them.”
“ Everybody was rowing in the same direction,” Littles said.“ By golly, we’ re going to get that accreditation, working day-and-night, weekends and holidays, and whatever it took we were going to show them that,‘ This is going to happen.’”
And members of the first class were doing their part as well, despite their detractors.
“ We were seeing results,” Littles added.“ They said our students wouldn’ t pass the boards, and they did. They said our students wouldn’ t match, and they did. And then they got to that first graduation and things just took off.”
The resolve and bond among that first class, handpicked to blaze the trail, played no small role in the process. Twenty-seven of the original 30 members of the inaugural class( the other three would graduate a year later) gathered for commencement in the courtyard of the spanking-new, 60,000-square-foot College of Medicine building, just a stone’ s throw away from where they spent their first two years in portable units.
Invited by the class to deliver the keynote commencement address, D’ Alemberte called the day a“ magical convergence” where the destinies of individuals aligned with the destiny of an institution.
Twenty years later, members of the inaugural class are flourishing in their careers as physician leaders and have maintained the bond that served them – and the College of Medicine – so well in those formative years and beyond.
M. D. Class of 2005 members celebrate milestones after receiving their white coats( top) and tossing their mortarboards following commencement.
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