Six lives, six graduates
Six lives, six graduates
Hundreds of students will graduate this year from the Health Science Center's six colleges. Meet a few members of the Class of 2007 who have inspired us already
Don Quixote in a white coat
By April Frawley Lacey
Dean Chapman looks like a doctor. Not just any doctor either. With his starched white coat, wispy silver hair, lined face and twinkling hazel eyes, Chapman seems like the kind of doctor who's in charge.
Maybe one day he will be. But he has to finish medical school first.
In 2003, Chapman, an ordained Presbyterian minister, gave up the pulpit to enter medical school at UF. At 53, he was older than some of his professors, and his classmates were his children's ages. But Chapman felt compelled to pursue medicine. His parents had died months apart in 2000, and as they deteriorated he felt helpless, frustrated with his lack of medical knowledge. He realized maybe he was supposed to help people in a different way, especially seniors, who often slip through the medical cracks, he said.
"I decided instead of sitting around I'd go charge at a windmill," said Chapman, who will graduate this month, a few weeks shy of his 57th birthday.
Adjusting to her husband's decision to trade his 20-year career as a pastor for medical school wasn't easy at first for Chapman's wife, Susan, mostly because she stayed in their Orlando home while he moved to Gainesville. His children were surprised too. But they all supported his goal, Chapman said.
So have other UF medical students. Although in their 20s, his classmates accepted him as a peer, inviting him to play basketball, study and even go out drinking, Chapman said. In turn, he's performed a few of their wedding ceremonies.
It hasn't all been easy, though. He missed his first clinical rotation after undergoing surgery to repair an aortic aneurysm, and insomnia has affected his studies.
Despite the setbacks, Chapman will graduate with his class. A few weeks later he and his wife will move to Burlington, Vt., where he will complete his residency in internal medicine.
He'll be 60 when he finishes, but Chapman is OK with that.
"I'm living the dream, honest to God," Chapman said. "I'm going to graduate and get a medical degree in a month. I can't believe it ''¦ if the word gets out, they may have 50-year-olds lining up down the street to get in."
Toughin' it out
By Lindy McCollum-Brounley
As dental senior Sasha Minor will tell you, family serves as an emotional compass for students as they navigate the complicated highways and byways of dental school. That compass always points to the heart, but the ties that bind are a two-way street. "My sister and I are only 11 months apart," Minor said. "I'm the big sister, but we're basically like twins. We're tight."
Although they shared similar aspirations, after high school Minor and her sister, Mackinzie, chose different paths. Mackinzie married and became a mom, staying in Panama City. Minor went on to college, eventually becoming one of UF's top dental freshmen entering as the Class of 2007.
By her sophomore year, Minor had established a routine that helped her keep up the grades, participate in extracurricular activities with her class and serve in the UF chapter of the American Student Dental Association. She also mentored undergraduate students involved in UF's pre-dental ASDA chapter, which she helped establish.
As Minor hit her groove in dental school, Mackinzie stalled at a marital roadblock. Feeling the need to help her sister through a difficult time, Minor invited Mackinzie and her 4-year-old son to stay with her in her one-bedroom apartment in Gainesville.
"My little nephew, his name is Von, and he's the only man in my life," Minor said with a laugh. "He's the cutest thing ever!"
Coming home presented new challenges for Minor ' dinosaurs in the bathtub, grocery shopping times three, cooking every night, finding time to study ''¦ and finding time for herself. Minor developed a new and profound appreciation for her classmates with spouses and children.
"Our parents helped as much as they could, but money got tight," she said. "I was taking my boards around that time, and it was hard to find time to study. Because when I got home it was, 'Hey Aunt Sasha! Look at me! Let's play Hungry Hippos! Let's play dinosaurs!' And I did."
Things got better, and Mackinzie and Von returned home to Panama City after several months. Normalcy returned to Minor's life, but her perspective was forever changed.
"We stuck together," said Minor, who hopes to pursue a general practice residency after graduation. "It was fun, and it was tough, but we got through it. It made me a stronger person, and I'm doing great. I passed all my boards, got a license and graduation is right around the corner."
Making dad proud
By Sarah Carey
For Brooke Bloomberg, service to mankind and to animalkind is a way of life she grew up with as the daughter of a board-certified small animal orthopedic surgeon who helped form the backbone of what the UF College Of Veterinary Medicine is today.
It's hard not to see the late Dr. Mark Bloomberg, D.V.M., former chief of staff of UF's small animal hospital, in Brooke. There's the marked physical resemblance and the commitment to human and animal health she displays through outreach activities, just as he did.
But Brooke, 32, has always been her own person. She grew up in Gainesville and holds an undergraduate degree in animal sciences and a master's degree in public health, both from UF.
"I always wanted to be a vet growing up, and I loved going to work with my dad," said Brooke, who will graduate from veterinary school this month. "After looking at all his patients, we would go out to the barn to take a look at the horses, which was my favorite part.
"Being a veterinarian seemed to define so much of my dad's life. I grew to greatly respect the profession from him and his colleagues I met from around the world."
A huge Gator fan, Mark Bloomberg died of a heart attack in January 1996 while watching UF play Nebraska in the Fiesta Bowl. After his death, Brooke questioned her motives for pursuing the profession.
"I wanted to make sure I was going to vet school for the right reasons," Brooke said.
While serving in the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps, Brooke realized she was becoming a veterinarian for the right reasons. She also realized she could combine veterinary medicine with her other goal ' improving animal and human health.
As a UF veterinary student, Brooke has experienced veterinary medicine on a global level. She has been to Chile to study the risk factors of Mycobacterium bovis, Ecuador to perform veterinary medical outreach and Honduras to participate in a zoo medicine class. In April, she headed to Indonesia for an avian influenza training workshop.
"Seeing how veterinary medicine is practiced in other countries and the resources that are available has been eye-opening," she said. "I have such great respect for the veterinary profession and am honored to be a part of it."
Legally blind, perfect vision
By Linda Homewood
Author Ayn Rand wrote, "Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps, down new roads, armed with nothing but their own vision."
Though legally blind, Bonny Reinhardt envisioned herself as a pharmacist. Reinhardt was studying science at the University of North Florida when she discovered the UF College of Pharmacy distance campus in Jacksonville. Not having to relocate to Gainesville helped make it possible for her to pursue a professional degree, she said.
Although not completely blind ' she can see up to 20 feet while most people with normal sight can see to 100 feet ' Reinhardt's poor vision makes driving impossible and it takes her longer to read. Her vision cannot be corrected with glasses. Her vision trouble stems from albinism, a condition that affects the amount of melanin in a person's skin, hair and eyes and often causes vision loss.
But her disability isn't her biggest challenge. Misconceptions of it are, she said. Most people think blindness is a total loss of sight and don't understand that she can still see.
Her biggest academic challenge came during her senior year when she changed clinical rotations. Each time she had to explain that taking longer to read a chart didn't mean she could't understand it.
"There is nothing that I can't do the same as any other pharmacist," Reinhardt said.
Reinhardt's academic strength didn't surprise her classmates, but she amazed them when she had a baby during her second year of pharmacy school. Her partner, David Bruzos, blinded during an accident when he was 12, took care of their daughter while Reinhardt continued her studies. The couple is expecting their second child in May.
The biggest limitation for their family is not being able to drive, Reinhardt said. During her four years of pharmacy school, classmate Jill McCoy helped a lot, as has Reinhardt's family.
Reinhardt discovered her career niche during her community pharmacy rotations. After graduation, she hopes to work at a local pharmacy, where she feels she can make the biggest difference in patients' lives.
"Counseling and explaining things to patients to help them understand their health and medications is where I feel like I have the most direct impact," Reinhardt said. "And I really enjoy doing this."
Ready to give back
By Jill Pease
Universal health care is shaping up to be one of the most important domestic issues for American voters in next year's presidential election and the timing couldn't be better, according to future health-care executive Will Jackson.
"Political attention on health care comes and goes," said Jackson, who will graduate this spring with a master's degree in health administration from the College of Public Health and Health Professions. "I want to jump in while it's vibrant and keep the energy alive. If a candidate who supports universal health care wins the election, it is up to those of us in health care to keep them to their word."
Raised in a single-parent family that did not have health insurance, Jackson is well aware of the need for affordable, accessible health care. It was his desire to give others an opportunity his family did not have that led him to choose health-care management as a career.
An internship last summer with CHOICES, the Alachua County health-care program for low-income workers who are uninsured, cemented Jackson's belief that such programs can be efficient and effective.
"For what works out to about $15 to $20 a year for taxpayers, we can give so many people health care," Jackson said. "After talking with just a few people who receive care through CHOICES, I could see how much it had made a difference in their lives and what a worthwhile program it is. It is satisfying to give back to the level of community that I grew up in."
After graduation, Jackson will begin a position as administrator-in-training at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, La., a 760-bed nonprofit acute care hospital. A flagship facility for the region, Our Lady of the Lake has played a crucial role since Hurricane Katrina.
"My goal is to stay excited, motivated and focused," Jackson said. "Right now I'm a big sponge. I want to absorb as much as I can."
Taking the scenic route
By Katie Phelan
Life is not the destination, but the journey. For Salvacion Powell, better known as Bunny to her nursing classmates, truer words have never been spoken.
Powell has spent the last year pursuing a dream she's now this close to achieving. She will graduate this summer with a bachelor's degree in nursing from a College of Nursing accelerated program, which allows students educated in other fields to earn nursing degrees in less time.
Like most people in this program, Powell is not the typical nursing student. A wife and mother of three sons, she spent most of her career in the retail industry. Born and raised in the Philippines, Powell earned a bachelor's degree in literature in 1982. A budding musician, she pursued a music career. But when her grandmother passed away, she wanted to learn more about the health-care system in the Phillipines so she volunteered as a candy striper in a hospital.
"Working as a volunteer opened my eyes to a new career in nursing," she said.
While most nurses receive their initial training in school, Powell's education began at her mother's bedside. Her mother was diagnosed with emphysema, and a family friend and doctor came to their home to care for her. It is customary in Filipino culture to use medical training to help friends and family.
This experience inspired Powell to pursue formal nursing education when she relocated to the United States in 2003.
To focus on her studies, Powell had to leave her family in Miami and move to Gainesville. She quickly became a mother away from home to many of her fellow nursing students. Study groups at her house usually include a home-cooked-meal.
After graduation, Powell hopes to pursue a career in public health and psychiatric and mental health nursing. She will continue her education at UF in the psychiatric and mental health master's nursing program.
"I believe nursing is my calling," she said.