The society members believe that the mentoring process helps medical students and doctors maintain their perspective.

At the March 3 event, held at the Paramount Plaza Hotel and Conference Center, Bergman, who writes under the pen name Samuel Shem, recalled meeting doctors Arnold and Sandra Gold, the founders of the Arnold P. Gold Foundation.

Sandra Gold, Ed.D., approached Bergman after a speech where he said he could tell the difference between third-year medical students and first- and second-year medical students “just by the way they walk around.” She was impressed with the notion that third-year students, having had their first clinical experience, are – or should be – visibly affected.

By Bergman’s account, it was this realization from which the humanism piece of the Golds’ program was born.

“In 2002, when the Chapman Chapter was founded, it solidified the College’s commitment to integrate the fundamentals of humanism and professionalism through the curriculum in physician training,” said Dr. Michael L. Good, interim dean of the UF College of Medicine.

“We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Mrs. Annie Lou Chapman for helping us maintain that crucial balance between science and art through the example of her husband, Dr. Jules B. Chapman.”

On behalf of Mrs. Chapman, society scholar and fourth-year medical student John Martino congratulated his classmates, residents and faculty who were inducted that evening. “She simply said, ‘My heart is with you and I regret I cannot be there.’ ”

Before Robert T. Watson, M.D., the former senior associate dean for educational affairs, announced the winners of the prestigious Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine awards, he took a moment to remember the late surgical resident Hugh A. Walters, M.D. Walters was killed in May last year when the SUV he was driving hit a culvert and rolled over. Watson read sentiments from Walters’ parents.

“You can be assured that out hearts and minds will be with you (this evening),” he said. “We can say that, without a doubt, the personnel with the department of surgery and the College of Medicine have been like a family to us.”

“Big Hugh,” “Baby Hugh” and “Huge Walters” were how his friends, fellow students and professors knew him. At this point in the evening, a strong human connection lingered in the air with the remembrance and absence of the promising, young surgeon.

On the tables were several red roses and copies of a mentorship booklet prepared in part by Kavita Rajasekhar, the fourth-year student presented with the Leonard Tow award.

“I truly believe that mentors can come in different forms: family, friends, teachers, nature, art, daily interactions… even pets,” she said.

Rajasekhar worked with Chapman advisers to create the book, which features student accounts of their mentor-mentee relationships.

“I think (the book) is a great way to say ‘thank you’ to these people,” said Rajasekhar.

The Leonard Tow award was named after the self-made philanthropist who earned both his master’s degree and doctorate while working as an educator at Hunter College in New York. The award is presented to the student and faculty member who best demonstrate the Arnold P. Gold Foundation’s ideals of outstanding compassion in the delivery of care, respect for patients, their families, and health-care colleagues, as well as demonstrate clinical excellence.

Dr. Maureen Novak was presented with the Leonard Tow faculty award that evening.

“I am a tapestry of all those who have taught me years ago and now, and those I have taught,” Novak said.

“It is just as important for the University of Florida to prepare our medical students for the arts and compassion and the human components as it is for us to prepare them for the science,” Good said, closing the evening. “Patients don’t know about these activities. They only know how they are treated.”

Congratulations to the 2008-2009 inductees:

Faculty
Maureen Novak, M.D.
Michelle Rossi, M.D.

Residents
Erin Cannington, M.D.
Michael Connor, M.D.
Sean Kiley, M.D.
Siva Suryadevara, M.D.
Miguel Tepedino, M.D.
Klark Turpen, M.D.

Medical Students
Erica Acosta Bartlet
Casey Justin Beal
Richard Douglas Beegle, II
Michael Dell Black
W. Kevin Conley, II
Katherine Corbyons
Lindsey Evans
Brie Michele Folkner
Sherita Lynn Holmes
Chanley Howell Dudley
Grace Hsu
Christyn Francesca Magill
Lindsay Malloch
Ryan Wesley Nall
Mark Wilson Newman
Deirdre Pachman
Kavita Rajasekhar
Jeff Sellman
Ilicia Shugarman
Irving Jose Zamora

“The Eastside clinic serves the underserved population of Gainesville. This population in particular sometimes needs extra motivation to keep up with their healthcare and a positive environment in which to do that,” Evans explained. “I have come to believe through my art experience that art can be a huge tool to help empower and unite people and communities, both of which are essential to improving the health of a community – mentally, physically, and spiritually.”

Lindsey Evans

Click here for more photos of this medical student art project.

Evans first came up with her idea while speaking with clinic medical director, Kendall Campbell, M.D., the assistant director of minority affairs for the COM and the adviser for the Student National Medical Association, which sponsored the project.

“Dr. Campbell said he wanted to spruce up his clinic,” Evans said. “I told him I’d love to do some paintings for his office. Dr. Campbell and Dr. (Donna) Parker have been incredible mentors to me since the start of medical school. I love working with them both.”

To prepare for the project, Evans designed and planned the drawings for each room on paper first. She then drew them on the walls of the clinic after hours. She was able to get the paint donated from various Gainesville stores, and she recruited medical students from every class to come out to the clinic Saturday, March 1. They came by the carloads, eager to paint and leave their own positive mark on the clinic.

The main mural in the front lobby depicts an image of diversity with the clinic’s mission statement written below: “To empower members of the community to maintain and improve their health.”

“This image and message are what the clinic staff and I wanted to pass on to the patients and the community through the project,” Evans said.

“The patients love it,” said Campbell. “It’s phenomenal. It’s also helped clinic morale. She’s a talented and gifted artist.”

“I have always been involved in art. I was drawing, painting, sculpting since I was little,” Evans said. “In high school I won a contest where one of my paintings was displayed in the House of Representatives for one year, and by that point I realized that no matter what path I took later in life, I would always be involved in art.

“I studied abroad in Brazil while I was an undergrad and worked with several nonprofit organizations that worked with homeless children and the arts,” she continued. “I learned to use art as a tool to harness kids into positive activity rather than a life on the streets.”

Evans took a year off before medical school and worked with children in Harlem, teaching elementary school. After hours, she worked for Creative Art Workshops for Kids organizing projects similar to those she did in Brazil.

“The themes focused on social issues and social empowerment of communities through art,” she explained. “All of these experiences together have made me realize that in my medical career I want to combine my art background with my passion for social change and serving the underserved.

“This project was hopefully a start to that path and I am thrilled with the way that it turned out.”