Life is about creating yourself

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”

– George Bernard Shaw, Irish Nobel Prize Winner for Literature

 

 

 

March 15, 2013

 

 

Match Day 2013… Facebook, Twitter and, of Course… the Matches… Nothing Matches the Match

 

Today is Match Day for all medical school graduates in the country… What a blast! It is so invigorating to watch our seniors learn about this next big step in their future… in their goal to become one of our nation’s top docs. Today’s noon match was full of television and movie stars circa the 90s from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to a sweet pair of potato heads to a really dapper Don, aka “Detective James ‘Sonny’ Crockett” Johnson. What a crowd. What a day. Lots of proud families and educators… also… we did some fun things with social media, check out all the live tweets – http://bit.ly/Wf0XEQ and photos here- http://on.fb.me/166IsVU. Video highlights coming later today on YouTube. We greatly appreciate the leadership of Dr. Kathy McKie, Andy Albritton, Paul Wallach and their colleagues – in preparing our students so well for this formative day. Our students will be wonderful ambassadors for our institution and Augusta… we look forward to seeing the great things they will do.

 

Lock, Stock and Barrel… Biannual Event… Supporting Medical Students to Consider Careers in Rural Communities

 

A great time was had at the Lock, Stock and Barrel- a biannual event benefitting the Georgia Rural Medical Scholar program, which gives medical students a wonderful glimpse at rural physician life. The event included skeet shooting, oyster roasting and live music. Great fun! Thanks to all involved in the program and this fabulous event. Our special thanks to Dr. Jean Sumner for her leadership! The scholar program was established by the Washington County Archway Partnership Health Committee, the Georgia Statewide AHEC Network and initially piloted by UGA to recruit and support medical students coming to the Washington and Johnson County area.

 

On Parade… MCG Graduate, Rural Physician Highlighted… Serving our Community

 

Howard McMahan, a 1980 MCG graduate, was featured in the March 3rd issue of Parade magazine. The article focused on his commitment to medicine, his patients and the small town of Ocilla, Georgia. “I believe all Americans deserve a physician that they can rely on,” he told the world. We do too and are proud to call Dr. McMahan one of our own. Check out this inspirational article – http://bit.ly/13XScTp

 

Regional campus leadership gathers in Augusta… Planning our Future throughout Georgia

 

An energizing gathering was held last week as MCG leaders from the literal four corners of our state converged on Augusta for the Regional Campus Leadership Team Meeting. What an invigorating group and meeting! We discussed the maturation of each campus as well as strategic outreach in their communities. The Northwest Campus comes officially online this year and the recent visit to that beautiful part of the state by the LCME went amazingly. These campuses, which are so critical to physician education in our state, are maturing in a way that makes us all proud. Way to go guys!

 

Leading in community outreach… High School Students Come Look and Learn…

 

March Medical Madness, a GRU Health Occupations Enrichment Conference, was held earlier this month. This program was put together by the Sports Medicine Program and was another great community outreach effort. This unique opportunity allowed area schools to learn Sports Medicine from several of our M.D., P.T., Radiology and Dental students. Participants include high school students from three South Carolina schools, Midland Valley, Silver Bluff and Williston-Elko. Students spent time with our terrific faculty and staff in the surgical stimulation lab, pathology gross dissection/histology, watching a video of knee arthroscopy and more. Great turnout; the success of the program was invaluable. Our thanks to Dr. Monte Hunter and colleagues for making this happen.

 

Heart Walk… Great Turnout… Great Cause

 

777 of our Heart Walk supporters turned out for the fabulous event at the beautiful North Augusta Greeneway last Saturday. It was a terrific showing of support for healthy hearts everywhere. Many thanks to Nancy Hannan, Dr. Kamath and David Hefner for their leadership in this event. Share in the moment by clicking here – http://on.fb.me/10KOEyX

 

Dining Deans… Food for Thoughts… Getting More Connected

 

The first Deans’ Lunch was held this past Friday. Several of our Class of 2013 students broke bread with Vice Dean Wallach and myself. We talked about consolidation, research, the Education Commons, strategic planning, admissions and finance/debt management and more. We hope the students enjoyed – and learned – as much as we did. Check it out on our Facebook page – http://on.fb.me/WeV9eF

 

Results are in… Faculty Satisfaction is on the Rise…

 

Many thanks again to all who participated in the Faculty Forward survey. The survey proved to be a great success. As reported, we had an impressive 55 percent survey response rate and we are delighted to share with you that the results reflect significant improvement over faculty satisfaction in 2009. In addition, MCG scored above both our peer groups and the entire Faculty Forward cohort in the majority of areas surveyed…more to come soon. We appreciate the leadership of Dr. Jack Yu, Dr. Kent Guion and the entire Faculty Forward Task Force in helping us understand our opportunities for continued improvement.

 

Go Green and Irish… Happy St. Patrick’s Day…

 

Enjoy the weekend… and… don’t forget to be Irish on Sunday and celebrate St. Patrick’s Day!

 

 

Upcoming Events …

 

March 16th – Ticker Trot 5k, a benefit for the American Heart Association, will be at the Augusta Canal at Lake Olmstead. To register early go visit- www.active.com or email gso@gru.edu. This event is sponsored by Graduate Student Organizations.

 

March 16th – Dr. William Schubert, a curriculum theorist, researcher and award-winning author, will be the featured speaker at our Impacting Student Learning Conference. The conference will be held in University Hall on the Summerville Campus. For more information, call the Department of Teacher Education at 706-737-1496

 

March 22nd- The Gold Humanism Honor Society Induction will begin. For more information please contact Dr. Kathleen Mckie, Associate Dean for Student Affairs.

 

March 29th – Education Grand Rounds will be sponsored by the Department of Pediatrics, “Transformation in Medical Education,” Dr. Steven Lieberman, F.A.C.P., Vice Dean of Academic Affairs from the University of Texas Medical Branch will speak at the CHOG (Children’s Hospital of Georgia) auditorium on Friday, March 29th at 8 a.m.

 

April 18th-20th – The SGEA meeting in Savannah will be held at the Hyatt Regency. For more information please go to http://bit.ly/Zq7MkO

 

April 26th- Dr. Delos Cosgrove, President and Chief Executive Office of Cleveland Clinic will give a guest lecture in honor of Drs. Robert & Lois Ellison in the Lee Auditorium, 3 to 4 p.m.

 

April 27 MCG reunion dinner at the Alumni Weekend for our institution. The MCG classes of ’48,’53,’58, ’63,’73,’78,’83, ’88, ’93, ’98 and ’03 are invited to make the event this year. For more information please visit- http://bit.ly/WJzAUN

 

May 3rd – Save the date! The annual State of the Medical College address will be held on Friday, May 3rd at noon. More details coming soon.

 

May 9th- MCG Hooding will begin at 2 p.m. in the Bell Auditorium.

 

May 10th- Medical College of Georgia at GRU will graduate 200 medical students at

2 p.m. at the James Brown Arena.

 

June 13th- MCG Chair Investiture Ceremony will start at 5 p.m. in the Lee Auditorium.

 

Have you checked out our new MCG Facebook page? If not, check it out at www.facebook.com/grumcg

 

Best wishes,