What Experiences, Personal or Otherwise, Led You to HMS?

Stephen Smith, MD ’63
I spent the summer following my undergraduate sophomore year with my uncle, a physician in California. That experience led me to choose a career in medicine.

Kenneth Bridges, MD ’76
Alvin Poussaint was key to my choice of HMS. As a first-to-college African American, I was uncertain of the reception I would receive at an elite Ivy League medical school. Dr. Poussaint’s openness about the medical school experience in general and HMS in particular gave me confidence both in the quality of the education and the ambience of the environment. His impact on me was life-changing.

Mary McCarthy-Tiella, MSc ’21
As a hospice nurse I am challenged daily with ethical dilemmas. The confluence of the opioid epidemic, the pandemic, and decreasing resources for families caring for loved ones dying at home required a fresh approach to combat moral distress. I found support and knowledge at HMS at the Center for Bioethics graduate program.

Benjamin Rix Brooks, MD ’70
In 1954, my cousin’s U.S. Navy officer husband developed bulbar poliomyelitis, leading to an early experience in the polio ward in the White Building at MGH. Later, in college, I stumbled upon a description of poliomyelitis in a book I found in Harvard Square on motor neuron disease that crystallized my interest in neurovirology. At HMS, I worked in the John F. Enders lab as a student with many who were developing the measles vaccine and others. Prior to the Salk vaccine, polio was a common influence on us all.

Stephanie Pincus, MD ’68
In summer 1964 I was working at a research laboratory when I received a letter admitting me from the HMS waiting list. I knew almost nothing about Harvard and had never been to Boston, but the laboratory head said it was a good place to go and an easy place to transfer from. So I jumped into the unknown and never regretted it.

Jose Giron, MD ’75
Superb reputation and great depth in research and clinical experience.

Edward Walkley, MD ’70
Three years undergrad at Dartmouth. I did my first two years of medical school at Dartmouth Medical School. It had small classes with great faculty and clinical correlation from day one. Then I transferred to HMS for the unrivaled clinical base and teaching.

Cheryl Warner, MD ’79
My father was a family practitioner and Holocaust survivor. As an immigrant from what was then Czechoslovakia, he restarted his life and career in the United States, grateful to be here with an opportunity to provide patient-centered, empathic care for his working-class patients. At retirement he received hundreds of cards and local news articles praising him. He encouraged me to aim high and remain committed to my personal goals.

Kenneth Chin, MD ’74
My first plane flight to Boston was for a research project I was involved in while in college. I liked the “town”!

Tsontcho Ianchulev, MD ’99
Providence.

Claire Broome, MD ’75
I spent the year after college in Colombia on a traveling fellowship loosely centered on public health, experiencing a very different culture and figuring out what to do with my life. I had two revelations — I wanted to contribute to global development, and I had to bring expertise to the table. HMS was the source of expertise, although the structure of the first year of med school was a huge challenge. I learned later how I had bored my friends talking about life in the barrio.

Kenneth Walker, MD ’50
I applied and was so very lucky to be accepted. And fortunate to be both a surgeon and syndicated medical journalist. I traveled the world as a journalist interviewing great scientists. In the process I’ve learned that great discoveries often go unnoticed.

Pablo LaPuerta, MD ’89
I was interested in both research and practice. I knew other medical schools would give me great clinical experience. I felt Harvard could add world-class research to that. My laboratory work in medical school eventually led to my involvement in drug development.

Johnson Lightfoote, MD ’76
I was blessed by a deep exposure to the sciences from Phillips Academy and Harvard College. I only wish that I would have given back more.

Richard Peinert, MD ’73
Easy. I was accepted!

Richard Hannah, MD ’66
I strongly considered the offer Case Western Reserve School of Medicine tendered me.  However, it is tough to ignore Harvard Medical School. Was my choice to attend HMS rather than Western Reserve wise? I can only wonder. Harvard was quite good.

Herbert Dan Adams, MD ’65
My dad (HMS ’29) had told me of its challenge and excellence. Thus, I believed HMS was the toughest test, and I loved that concept. HMS almost killed me ... LOL.

Kathryn Glatter, MD ’93
I got accepted to both Stanford and Harvard Medical Schools. I liked Harvard, but I really loved Stanford. The weather there was great, and the students were playing hacky sack, which I had never seen before. Coming from the Midwest, both places seemed fantastic. My father said, “Well, Harvard is Harvard,” so I enrolled to get the Harvard name on my resume. I loved it and was later able to do my electrophysiology fellowship and get married at Stanford.

Stephen Grund, MD ’91
While doing postdoctoral research at Children’s Hospital, I met so many smart, dedicated physicians from HMS — riding in the elevator with Judah Folkman, for example. They inspired me to change careers from research to medicine. I knew that HMS provided the best teaching and training, which would allow me to become the best physician I was capable of. There was nowhere else I wanted to go.

Ichiro Ikuta, MMSc ’12
I was looking to gain a better understanding of radiation exposure from medical imaging after seeing one of my patients get many CT head exams. I found great mentorship at HMS from Drs. Katherine Andriole, Aaron Sodickson, and Alexa McCray. An HMS postdoctoral fellowship in biomedical informatics gave me the foundation for better research and has made me a better doctor.

Bliss Chang, MD ’20
A second look solidified my desire to attend HMS. While the resources at HMS are outstanding, there are many places with sufficient resources to launch an excellent medical career. What really struck me about HMS was the collegiality and openness to sharing diverse viewpoints. The true advantage of HMS is exposure to unique life experiences and viewpoints that one would never encounter otherwise. Essentially, this is a fast track to accumulating the currency of life.

John Bullock, MD ’68
When I was in the first grade, I decided that I wanted to be a doctor. My best friend’s father had gone to Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School, so I decided to go to Dartmouth and HMS. Fortunately, I did!