CDU Meet and Greet with TCU Medical Students Highlights“ Being the First”
July 10, 2023 is the date that heralds the opening of the new 4-Year on-campus Medical School. That moment will undoubtedly become more and more celebrated in the University’ s history as time passes.
Founding Dean Deborah Prothrow-Stith, Senior Associate Dean Ron Edelstein and their colleagues are conducting an exhaustive examination of the elements that will ensure both a successful launch and a sustainable future. You’ ve got to hand it to them. They are very mindful of the vast panorama of challenges and benefits that lie ahead. Wisely, they are following the route of assume nothing.
To that end, a discussion forum via Zoom was staged in early February as a meet and greet with members of the first graduating class of the Burnett School of Medicine at Texas Christian University. Three women on the verge of graduating with backgrounds similar to the incoming class of 60 at CDU. The women offered very personal advice and insights to the rapt audience of CDU faculty, staff, and students.
Charna Kinard, Briana Collins, and Shanice Cox are the three fourth year TCU students. They provided information, insight, and most importantly – lessons learned from their experience as pioneers. And they were all appropriate choices to address this particular inner circle.
Besides her training at the medical school, Ms. Kinard has served as a member of the Association of American Medical Colleges( AAMC) Organization of Student Representatives. She has been liaison for the Burnett School and has provided input to the AAMC on behalf of the students there. Briana Collins was in India during the Zoom call, actively participating in a Global Health Elective, in a monthlong observation at Bangalaore Baptist Hospital. Shanice Cox, a recipient of the inaugural AAMC / Darrell G. Kirch, MD Scholarship, and was the third TCU participant.
Each of these women offered valuable insight regarding their experience during the successful onboarding and matriculation of CDU’ s incoming first class. Ms. Kinard indicated that the Burnett School of Medicine appealed to her as an empathetic, compassionate patient-centered institution. Ms. Collins noted that the school provided something different to her than many of the other medical schools she applied to, with the institution having spread a wide net including reaching out to undergraduate Theatre Arts majors. Two of the speakers noted that they had attended Post-Bacc preparation training prior to admission. Shanice Cox referenced the financial hurdles that non-traditional students often experience, but she nevertheless persisted in applying. During the intake interview process, she said that she connected with other applicants and could visualize herself being in
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