Traditions and transitions
Within days, another group of medical learners will transition from medical students to physicians. How exciting. Indeed, this rite of passage never ceases to inspire me.
It is made all the more special when one knows the individuals involved; their unique stories of how they found themselves being admitted to Schulich Medicine just four years ago and their hopes and aspirations for the future.
I believe I can safely say that all who are involved with medical education – whether directly or indirectly – end up with a sense of pride as we reflect on the collective accomplishments of the students.
In some ways, we are like beaming parents whose children have attained an important milestone. Forgive us if we gloat a bit; forgive us if we reminisce too much; and forgive us when we think back to the White Coat Ceremony, Orientation Week and the Meet & Greet Event in 2012. Remember Dr. Tahera Azharuddin being awarded the 2012 Pfizer Teacher Development Award that evening? We can readily see just how much the Class of 2016 has matured.
To our soon-to-be graduates: you make us all proud. As you move forward with your medical careers, you will continue to be strong ambassadors of Schulich Medicine and of the Windsor Campus. Good luck and remember, you will always be warmly welcomed should you decide to return to campus in London or Windsor, whether for a brief visit or if you decide to practice medicine in our communities.
As of April 1, the nomenclature for Windsor has been updated to better reflect our core business. Schulich Medicine has a number of programs operating in Windsor, and the Windsor Campus terminology is a much better descriptor. This name change was part of the work being undertaken as part of the Schulich Medicine Distributed Education program strategic plan.
Another change was the reconfiguration of the Distributed Education program geographically into six regional academies. In the next few months, we will be focusing on how best to align the structure of academic leadership at the Windsor Campus in tandem with better connection to and service of the Essex Academy.
You will be hearing more about this in future newsletters.
As you may know and will undoubtedly read about in the newsletter, the 2016 Awards of Excellence – Windsor Campus event was held on April 12. This year we had a record number of nominees at 38, submitted by 35 nominators. A heartfelt thank-you to everybody who nominated a colleague; the awards take on that much more significance when the pool of candidates expands.
In closing, I’d like to share a public pat on the back for a faculty member who is always looking to improve as a medical educator: we’ve highlighted Anna Farias, anatomy learning specialist, in the past and it is time again to sing her praises; this time for successfully completing the Schulich Medicine Faculty Development Teaching Certificate, a feat that only two other Windsor Campus faculty have accomplished to date: Dr. J. R. Coates and Dr. S. Rao. Congratulations, Anna on this impressive accomplishment. I know that our students appreciate the care our faculty place when it comes to the art of teaching.
Gerry Cooper EdD,
Associate Dean, Windsor Campus
