Bhavin Adhyaru provides a fond tribute to his classmates for faculty, staff, parents, friends and remaining students of the College of Medicine. Please see slide show below.
It is my sincere honor to be a member and academic chair of the class of 2008. Our class is one of the brightest and most talented classes to walk the halls of the University of Florida College of Medicine. I know that my class and I represent the future of our profession, and we will be leaders in our fields — ranging from political reform and public health policy making, to research, to teaching, and of course, patient care.
I am proud of all of the accomplishments we have made these past four years, both in and out of school. Academically, our class scored the highest ever on the Neuroscience shelf (90th percentile) and Microbiology shelf (84th percentile). We had a 100 percent pass rate on Step 2 CK, and we had the second-highest average on the Step 1 overall (233 average).
Within the college and our community, our class started the annual Talent Show in honor of Caroline Cody. We initiated the annual Medstock to raise money for the student mission trips. We logged more than 5,000 hours of community service, and our classmate Allison Carilli and her husband, Jason founded the Dreams of a Lifetime organization, giving young adults diagnosed with cancer hope and inspiration.
Rana Yehia is the regional chair of the AMA-MSS — a very special honor. Many of the EPC videos for interacting with patients for the first- and second-year students were developed by my class (Jack Cheng). Members of my class formed the White Coat Company, an acting group that first performed the “Wizard of Oz” and now flourishes (“Beauty & Beast” was their most recent performance). I could probably go on and on about the great service our class has given to our college. We leave behind a great legacy and hope that future classes continue and expand on the projects we established.
Of course these achievements are great, but what make my class really great are my classmates themselves. Everyone knows each other, and I can truly say that we are a “family.” We have 12 students who successfully couple matched (Ashvin & Tina, Jeff & Lindsey, Chi & Nancy, Shawn & Nicole, Eric & Nina, Jon & Katie) and many of my classmates have or will be married by the end of the year. We have several members who welcomed new additions to their family (Allison Carilli, Kim Evans, LaRae Brown, and Kurt Scherer), so be on the look out for them in the future! Additionally, during our first and second years our class had an intramural softball team, basketball team and football team — all of which excelled. We held chess and ping pong tournaments with faculty, which was a lot of fun. We all tried to learn more about each other with potlucks and cultural events, displaying the diversity that exists in our class and college.
As we begin the second journey of our medical careers and part our separate ways, we will always hold on to the memories and traditions we leave behind at UF COM. I know we have made a positive impact on our school, on our patients, and our community. We give thanks to the faculty and staff who have dedicated their time to help us succeed. In the words of a great coach, we began with “stroke, stroke, kick, kick” as we set out on the marathon in our first year, and now we are ready to cross that finish line.