chosen to return to UNE COM to teach. Tristan Reynolds, DO ‘13 was an Assistant Clinical Professor and Co-Course Director for the Osteopathic Clinical Skills Course that included anatomy, embryology, histology, and osteopathic manipulative medicine. He was also advisor to multiple student clubs and organizations, including White Coats for Black Lives, Student Radiology Association, American College of Osteopathic Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and Medical Students for Choice.
For him, the transition from student, to physician, to teacher was relatively seamless. He felt the first training he received was the guidance provided by the faculty at the time. “When I was a student here, you were treated like you’re going to be the colleague of that person in a few years. You’re going to be that person’s colleague and everybody treats you with respect and sets a very high expectation of you because they know that they want you to be in the best position to compete.” This unofficial mentoring morphed into a more official capacity when he was selected to be a fifth-year teaching Fellow: “I think a big reason why I was able to get a job here as a professor is a teaching fellowship that I did between my third and fourth year,” he explains. “One has this additional year to focus on osteopathic manipulation and anatomy built into the curriculum. So you kind of become this junior faculty member where you are a liaison between the students and the faculty.”
Through his teaching and advising, Dr. Reynolds has been fortunate to have had a hand in the progression of many students over their first two years of medical school. “I'm so lucky in that I have incredible moments every week with students… where someone has an aha moment,” he says. “I've seen people through that whole spectrum be able to grow, and it just warms me up to see how incredibly good people will become as practitioners, mentors, peers, alumni and as people.”
For the next 40 years, UNE COM will continue its tradition of paying it forward. In an official capacity, alumni and friends will continue to give back by providing COM students the opportunity for shadowing and preceptorships; faculty will continue to teach and advise our students and provide them with the necessary professional skills to be successful physicians; the COM mentoring program will continue to build upon itself, adapt, and change as the needs of our students change along with the shifting medical landscape. In an unofficial capacity, alumni and friends will continue to share their experiences in the hopes that something they say will resonate, continuing the cycle of giving that has been the hallmark of this institution. In the words of Dr. Reynolds, “You don't have to learn how to be a physician in a day, in a week, or a year. It's a lifelong journey and no one can learn how to do everything all at once. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.” UNE COM alumni will be at each of the water stations along the way, because they know what it is to be thirsty, and they know the finish is worth the journey.