Road to Graduation 2019
Medical students from the class of 2019 reach ever closer toward their dreams of becoming physicians
Spring 2019 — When blossoms bloom and pollen falls from the sky like rain, fourth-year students at the UF College of Medicine begin the last leg of their journey from medical students to residents. Follow three students as they navigate the road from Match Day to commencement, each day bringing them one step closer toward achieving their dreams of becoming physicians.
Michael McNeely
Filmed at the F-Club in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium
May 15, 2019 — Being on the Florida Gators football team taught Michael McNeely important lessons about teamwork, positivity and perseverance that aided him in his medical training. “On the football team, everyone comes from different backgrounds, but everyone has to work together to achieve a common goal. Medicine is similar,” says the graduating UF medical student. “You need to be able to take feedback from people working in different components of patient care and communicate well with people from different backgrounds to achieve that common goal.” After graduation on Saturday, McNeely will soon begin a family medicine residency at Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle, where he will receive the training he needs to pursue his dream of opening a primary care practice for the medically underserved.
Altelisha Taylor
Filmed at UF's Southwest Recreation Center
April 26, 2019 — Before fourth-year UF College of Medicine student Altelisha Taylor decided on a career as a family medicine physician, she considered working on Wall Street. What eventually motivated her toward medicine, though, was a desire to devote her life to serving others in meaningful ways. “I realized I didn’t want to wake up every morning with the primary goal of making more money,” she says. Today, the future resident at Emory School of Medicine still feeds her passion for finance through her blog, Careermoneymoves.com, where she provides advice to her classmates and other young professionals on taxes, loans, property and any other financial quandaries her peers may have.
Hanna Peterson
Filmed at Depot Park
March 12, 2019 — Hanna Peterson used to watch live streams of UF College of Medicine Match Days of years past and feel all the emotions the newly matched residents were experiencing: anxious anticipation followed by a joyous release. On Friday’s Match Day, Peterson looks forward to matching in an OB-GYN residency, where she can apply the humanistic principles of medicine she was taught by her UF College of Medicine faculty mentor Patrick Duff, M.D. “Your patients won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care,” Duff told Peterson. These are words Peterson will keep close to her heart throughout her career in medicine.
