On the stage at pre-commencement

Maryland Graduates its 199th Class; Members to Train in 20 Different States

Dean’s gold medal recipient Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD

Convocation and Commencement ceremonies were held for 145 students of the medical school’s 199th graduating class on May 16. This year’s pre-commencement convocation included a presentation of the dean’s gold medal to Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, as well as a lifetime achievement award to Paul Schenker, ’26, Maryland’s oldest living graduate.

Sixty days earlier, members of the Class of 2008 were informed of the locations of their medical training during the annual Match Day celebration in Davidge Hall. This year’s national event was the largest in history, according to the National Resident Matching Program. Maryland students matched to 102 different programs at 52 hospitals across 20 states. More are planning to go into primary care medicine than any class in recent history. The biggest increases were seen in family medicine and surgery.

Nationwide, 28,737 applicants vied for one of 22,240 first-year residency positions. Of those applicants, a record-high 15,242 were U.S. medical school seniors, 94.2 percent of whom successfully matched to a residency program. The number of first-year residency positions available through the match was also the highest in history, as 395 additional positions were added this year.

Sanober Shaikh gets congratulations for matching at Maryland in emergency medicine during the March 20 Match Day Celebration		Faculty gold medal co-recipient Zaineb Hassan Makhzoumi, ’08
Phonothon Appreciation Night In the food line during the Davidge Hall picnic were first-year student-callers Mamta Jhaveri, Jolinta Lin, Jamie Goldberg, and Andrea Hebert The 120 students who volunteered for the fall phonothon were invited to a picnic and Orioles baseball game on April 16. The picnic at Davidge Hall included typical baseball fanfare: hotdogs, hamburgers, peanuts, beer, wine, and soda. Then it was off to Camden Yards to watch the O’s take on the White Sox. Unfortunately for the hometown crowd, Chicago walked away a 3–1 victor. Shannon Graf, ‘10, donating hair Students Shed Locks of Love Nearly 40 students got ready for summer on April 29 by cutting off their hair and donating it to charity. The event was organized by Brian Harkavy, ’10. The collected ponytails went to Locks of Love, an organization that makes wigs for children suffering from hair loss due to a variety of medical conditions.       Back | Home