The T.H. Chan School of Medicine welcomed its largest class of medical students on Monday, Aug. 19, including three students from Canada and the first cohort of students accepted into the LEAD@Lahey track.
Chancellor Michael F. Collins opened the orientation and welcomed students to UMass Chan.
“I used to study at a rickety green table and I wanted more than anything to be a doctor,” said Chancellor Collins as he addressed the 235 new medical students gathered in the Albert Sherman Center auditorium. “With gratitude, I’m delighted that you will follow us in our profession. Congratulations and welcome to UMass Chan.”
In the T.H. Chan School of Medicine Class of 2028, 70 percent self-identify as women and 62 percent are Massachusetts residents. Thirty-five students are from backgrounds underrepresented in medicine, 46 are from economically and educationally disadvantaged backgrounds, and 23 are first-generation college students.
“All of the faculty here are committed to your success. We believe in you. You wouldn’t have gotten into this medical school if we didn’t believe in you,” said Anne Larkin, MD, associate professor of surgery and vice provost and senior associate dean for educational affairs.
In partnership with Lahey Hospital & Medical Center in Burlington, Massachusetts, the 32 students in the first cohort of the LEAD@Lahey track will be focused on leadership, health systems science and interprofessional education. Josh Rothschild, JD, MPH, of Newton, Massachusetts, applied to the program after working as a lawyer for ten years because it was a way to combine his interests and improve health systems.
“My ultimate career goal is to integrate primary health services into mental health care and addiction health care with wraparound services,” Rothschild said.
Twenty-five students are enrolled in the Population-based Urban and Rural Community Health track, UMass Chan’s program at Baystate Health in Springfield, Massachusetts, while 15 are enrolled in the MD/PhD program. Twenty-nine students are UMass graduates, including nine graduates from UMass Chan pipeline programs such as the UMass Baccalaureate MD Pathway Program.
Jonathan Assaad and Hieu Tran walked together to listen to Chancellor Michael F. Collins give opening remarks.
While Hieu Tran of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam comes from a family of doctors, the field of medicine is all new for classmate Jonathan Assaad of Wellesley, Massachusetts.
“Being a physician has been my dream since I was younger,” said Assaad. “Everything I did seemed to affirm that. I’m looking forward to training with the next generation of doctors and working to see how we can make medicine better.”
Orientation for the class began on Wednesday, Aug. 14, in a three-school event with students from the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing. There are 82 new nursing students, of which 28 are first-generation college students and 41 are underrepresented in nursing. There are 86 new Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences students, including five from India and three from Alabama.
In addition to the orientation held for the three schools, the Diversity and Inclusion Office hosted the Inclusive Excellence orientation, also open to all students, on Thursday, Aug. 15.
