Some Class of 2022 students recently reflected on their time at the UI Carver College of Medicine and what’s next.
View the 2022 Carver College of Medicine Commencement Ceremony Guide.
Meet Nick Lind
What was the most rewarding part of your Carver College of Medicine experience?
“My most rewarding experience was putting together the Short Coat Podcast series on parenting in med school. I wanted a resource that pre-meds, medical students, and their partners could use to better understand family life during medical school. The series was great, but it turned into so much more. We started a student interest group focused on supporting student parents and worked with the college to develop a parental leave policy. The legacy of my little podcast idea will hopefully serve Carver students for years to come.”
Meet Erica Henderson
What was the most rewarding part of your Carver College of Medicine experience?
“I remember once I was coming off a month of nights on the gynecology floor followed by a month of high-risk obstetrics, which is not the easiest. I had a patient who I got to see multiple times during my rotation. She was a firecracker, and we really jived well together. She was pregnant and her pregnancy was complicated by her weight. She developed pre-eclampsia and needed an urgent C-section. I could tell how anxious she was about this surgery, so I ended up staying with her after my shift. We listened to Elvis before she was put under anesthesia, and I stayed for her C-section and got to see her throughout the whole process. It was the first time that I felt ownership over the care of my patient, and to see the skillset that I had developed over the two months that she had been periodically over my care was really rewarding. It was a great outcome for her and her kiddo, too.”
Meet Steven Leary
How did you choose this career path?
“Growing up with a younger brother who has special needs, I knew I wanted to help people overcome obstacles. As I went through medical school, this developed into a passion for protecting quality of life. I love the opportunity to work with my hands and help people get back to doing what makes them happy.”
Meet Madeline Cusimano
What experiences outside the curriculum greatly enhanced your education?
“I was involved in the Free Mental Health Clinic, which offers care for patients who are on waitlists to see psychiatrists or maybe don’t currently have insurance. I got involved in my M1 year. I loved that I could get early interaction with patients and learn skills like patient interviewing, presenting our patients to a physician, and getting hands-on mentoring with the residents and physicians who helped staff the clinic. At that time, I didn’t know that I would be going into psychiatry, but it definitely helped shape my desire to go into that specialty. I eventually joined the executive board, and I’ve really appreciated helping make decisions that impact the clinic for the better.”
Meet Kyle Grover
How did you choose this career path?
“I was able to do family medicine rotations in Dyersville, Osage, and at the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics, where I got to work with wonderful physicians who were passionate about their work. The opportunity to work with a wide variety of patients in the clinic, in an inpatient setting, in the emergency department, and in labor and delivery showed me the diversity of experiences available, and that drew me to family medicine.”
The Class of 2022 by the numbers
Doctor of Medicine (MD): 154 graduates, including 9 graduates in the Medical Scientist Training Program (MD/PhD)
- 72 males, 82 females
- 26% will train in Iowa
- 8 (5%) first-generation graduates
- 13 (9%) graduating with dual degrees (includes the Medical Scientist Training Program)
- 82 (53%) completed a distinction track
Masters in Medical Education (MME): 4 graduates
Master of Clinical Anatomy: 4 graduates
Master of Clinical Nutrition: 11 graduates
Medical Laboratory Sciences Bachelor of Science: 3 graduates, including 1 first-generation graduate
Nuclear Medicine Technology Bachelor of Science: 8 graduates
- 5 first-generation graduates
- 1 earning a minor
- 1 earning distinction
Radiation Sciences Bachelor of Science: 38 graduates
- 16 (42%) first-generation graduates
- 8 (21%) earning a minor or certificate
- 18 (47%) earning distinction
- 2 graduating with a dual degree
Congratulations to all of our Med School graduates! You have completed an arduous road; be proud!
Congratulations to all the Medical School Graduates and to their professors! It has been an honor for me to teach some of the medical students, and to train two of the MSTP students in my laboratory.