Jack Wu, left, and his brother Steve Wu celebrate their graduation from medical school. The brothers will be going their separate ways for residency. Jack is going to Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Ill., and Steve is going to Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. (photos by Dana Johnson)
Class of 2003 celebrates — Students say goodbye
to School of Medicine
Dean Steven Gabbe presents the School of Medicine Founder's Medal to Kevin Kosak. Kosak is the first M.D./Ph.D. student to receive the Founder's Medal.
Constance Mobley, right, and her sister Dr. Norma Denise Mobley wave to their parents after Norma gave Constance her diploma. (photos by Dana Johnson)
The Grippo brothers, from left, Ryan Grippo, first-year VUSM student, 2003 graduate Dr. Dan Grippo, and 2001 graduate Dr. Jim Grippo celebrate after the graduation ceremony. Dan received his diploma from his brother Jim during the ceremony.
Dr. Joy Duong, class of 2002, and her brother David Duong, right, hug Dr. Bonnie Miller after Joy presented David with his diploma.
Dr. Kevin Kozak is taking a weeklong cruise to St. Thomas, Nassau and the Bahamas, a few days after graduating and receiving the Founder’s Medal from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. The first M.D./Ph.D. graduate to receive the Founder’s Medal, given since 1877 for first honors in each graduating class, Kozak has earned some rest and relaxation.
Kozak, of Milwaukee, Wis., will resume work in the laboratory of Dr. Lawrence J. Marnett when he returns, until he leaves for a transitional internship year at Boston University Medical Center followed by residency in radiation oncology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
A magna cum laude graduate with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Harvard University, Kozak attended Harvard on a Navy ROTC scholarship, then fulfilled his military service as a naval intelligence officer during which he analyzed raw intelligence data to determine risk to Navy aviators. He was recognized with a Navy Achievement Medal and a Navy Commendation Medal.
After his Navy service, Kozak entered the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine’s Medical Scientist Training Program. In addition to his medical degree, he received a doctorate degree in biochemistry and was the recipient of the Cunningham Award for the best graduate student in biochemistry. His achievements also earned him membership in the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. He also volunteered at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital and with the Big Brothers program.
Kozak, one of 93 graduates of the Class of 2003, said that although he was accepted at several medical schools, he “fell in love” with VUSM when he interviewed.
“It’s a great place to be a student. There is openness among the faculty and they are eager to treat students as soon-to-be peers. Their doors are always open,” Kozak said. “I noticed when I came here that the clinical investigators and faculty were all happy. It’s a warm environment. It felt right. The Founder’s Medal is about the environment here, and not about me.”
The graduates began last Friday morning by attending the 2003 commencement ceremony at Memorial Gymnasium, where the event was moved due to heavy rains during the week. Chancellor Gordon Gee, who was presiding over his third commencement, told the large group of Vanderbilt graduates to “convert the knowledge that you have learned so dearly here into wisdom. Use it in service to beings everywhere to transform the world, through your best work as scientists, as healers, as theologians, as writers, as activists. Let your whole life bring forth what you have learned, what is your core, until humans on earth can truly say that they know and understand one another.”
VUSM’s new emeritus professors, Drs. Benjamin J. Alper, William O. Whetsell Jr., Stephen C. Woodward and Jack N. Wells, Ph.D., were also recognized at the university ceremony.
At the medical school recognition program in Langford Auditorium, Dr. Harry R. Jacobson, vice chancellor for Health Affairs, said that four years ago the Class of 2003 “came here as the best students American undergraduate education had to offer. To have failed with this group of students would have been nearly impossible.”
Dr. Steven G. Gabbe, dean of VUSM, quoted Lee Ann Womack’s song “I Hope You Dance.” “I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance,” Gabbe read to the graduates. “Never settle for the path of least resistance. Living might mean taking chances, but they’re worth taking.” Gabbe told the students to “keep the fires burning and keep dancing.”
Also participating in last week’s ceremony was Dr. R. Michael Rodriguez, associate professor of Medicine, who was selected by the Class of 2003 to read their names. Jacobson and Dr. Joyce E. Johnson, associate professor of Pathology, conferred the academic hoods and Gabbe and Dr. Bonnie M. Miller, associate dean for Medical Students, awarded the diplomas. Miller, winner of this year’s Shovel Award for outstanding teaching, led the students in reciting “The Professional Oath of The VUSM Class of 2003,” an oath that they wrote to use instead of the Hippocratic Oath usually recited by graduating classes.
In addition to students receiving their medical degrees, 10 students received Master of Public Health Degrees; seven, Master of Science in Clinical Investigation; one, a joint degree from the Owen Graduate School of Management and the medical school; and five, joint M.D./Ph.D. degrees.
Medical school graduation was a family affair for many of the graduates.
Jack Wu, 26, and his brother, Steve, 28, both received their medical degrees last week. Steve, a year ahead of Jack, took a year off to do research, and was able to graduate with his brother.
“We have gone to the same school all of our lives — same elementary school; same junior high; same high school; and then to the University of California Berkeley,” Jack said, adding that when the two leave in June for their residencies — Jack to Cook County Hospital in Chicago for a medicine/emergency medicine residency; and Steve to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center for a pediatrics residency, it will be the first time the brothers have gone their separate ways.
“We have always been really close,” Jack said. “Part of the reason I chose medicine was because I wanted to follow in Steve’s footsteps,” he said. Their father, Jing Chong Wu, a physician, his wife, Alice, and the Wu brothers’ sister, Michelle, all attended graduation, then attended Steve’s wedding the day after. He married GraceYao, a Vanderbilt University School of Nursing alumna, on May 10.
Several graduates opted to have family present them with their diplomas. VUSM grants a one-day visiting faculty appointment to a family member with a medical degree, so that the family member may present his or her graduating student with a diploma.
Daniel Grippo was presented with his diploma by his brother, Jim, a 2001 graduate of VUSM. Jim is presently a radiology resident at the University of Florida. Another Grippo brother, Ryan, is a first-year student at VUSM and was named the first Dean John E. Chapman scholar, receiving full tuition to VUSM for the next four years.
“I knew from my older brother (Jim) that this was the place to be,” Daniel said. “Coming here has been an amazing experience. I told Ryan, ‘only apply to Vanderbilt. Don’t waste your time or money applying elsewhere,’ and he didn’t. This is where you want to be.”
Grippo said it was a great feeling being presented with his diploma by his brother. “I’m hoping that both of us can come back to present Ryan with his diploma,” he said.
Morgan Fitz McDonald was presented with her diploma by her grandfather, Dr. Tom Fitz Sr., a retired cardiologist from Hickory, N.C. McDonald is heading to the University of North Carolina Hospital in Chapel Hill for a residency in pediatrics, where she will be near all four of her grandparents. Fourteen family members, including all of her grandparents, came to see McDonald graduate.
“At practice, I had to keep telling myself, ‘you’d better not cry,’” McDonald said. “My grandfather was very excited, too. He sent me an e-mail telling me how excited he was. It’s an unusual and very extraordinary tradition that Vanderbilt has, giving family members a one-day faculty appointment so that they can present us with our diplomas.”