It is with great pleasure that we celebrate the University of Colorado School of Medicine Class of 2023 with a hooding and oath ceremony on Monday, May 22, at 10:15 a.m.
Join us as we honor our students who have accomplished so much over the past four years and have stepped up to meet the demands of medical school and clinical training.
Click on the stories below to learn more about our graduates and their journey through medical school.
For more information and details on this year's graduation, please click here.
An Unexpected Love Story that Began in the Cadaver Lab
Not many love stories begin in the cadaver lab at 4 a.m., but this one does.
Marlie Fisher, PhD, and Matt Svalina, PhD, had just started their MD/PhD program in the University of Colorado School of Medicine and were learning, in those first several months, that something would have to give if they were going to balance graduate core courses with human anatomy lab.
What gave was sleep. Matt announced to their small cohort of nine MD/PhD students, “I’m going to anatomy lab at 4 a.m., who’s joining me?” Marlie was the only one who did.
The Power of Community
There’s a soft spot in Brenda La’s heart for tight knit communities.
The soon-to-be graduate has found herself wrapped up in them from the remote reaches of rural Alaska to the groups of students she has met during her time at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
“One of the most meaningful experiences I’ve had at the CU School of Medicine has been the opportunity to meet and cultivate relationships with the incredible people in this community,” says La, co-president of the class of 2023.
Bianca Sanchez Chose Medicine to Help Immigrants and Families
For Bianca Sanchez, the ideas of medicine and family are inextricably intertwined.
As the fourth-year medical student at the University of Colorado School of Medicine looks toward her graduation ceremony later this month, she recalls that it was her family’s struggles that inspired her to pursue medicine in the first place — and it’s her desire to help other families like hers that led her to a pediatrics residency at the CU School of Medicine. That residency will begin this summer.
Cancer Diagnosis During Medical School Offered Unique Insight into Patient Experience
Steve Haberkorn knows he’s not the first person to pursue a career in medicine out of a desire to help people. That’s why he did it, though – to help where he can and work to improve people’s lives.
Through his studies in the University of Colorado School of Medicine, he learned how helping often requires empathy. A clinician needs to see things from a patient’s perspective.
So, when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer in January 2019, almost halfway through his medical studies, he embarked on a personal medical journey that at times felt overwhelming and deeply scary.
