Charter Class Scholarship

[Narrator]: In 2008 it was a field by some railroad tracks in a flood zone. Founding dean Cynda Johnson would take a college junior to the site and point out where the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine would be. She would be selling the dream.

[Yisrael Katz, class of 2014]: When we first interviewed there was no medical school. Within a few months we were guaranteed a medical school. This beautiful building popped up here.

[Delegate Lacey E. Putney, Virginia House of Delegates]: and coupled with the research, I cannot imagine a state of the art facility... for what we need in medical care in the future, I cannot imagine one being equal to this one here in Roanoke. 

[Christopher Vieau, class of 2014]: Not only the Carilion Clinic community but the Roanoke community has really welcomed us and supported us and kind of fostered our education. It's been a great experience.

[Narrator]: The members of the first class were risk takers who knew that their school still had to earn accreditation they put on their white coats and they dove into a new style of medical learning.

[Cynda Johnson, founding dean]: They continued their journey here at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, a brand new medical school, where they would experience all the advantages and challenges of being the charter class.

[Narrator]: A small school, a community of learners would spring up around the idea that patients could be the teachers through their cases. Students would work in groups of seven to solve problems.

[Cynda Johnson]: From the first weeks of class, VTCSOM students are involved in clinical medicine. Unlike those of us who trained before them, they were already thinking like physicians when they began their clinical clerkships in their third year.

[Robert Brown, class of 2014]: It's one thing to memorize from a book a plan of action. It's another thing entirely to go out into the real world where things don't always work out as planned, and you have to really think on your feet and consider all the different variables and that's what this really prepared us for.

My name is Donald Vile.

My name is Robert Brown.

My name is Raeva Malik.

[Donald]: I am a member of the chartered class.

[Robert]: The charter class Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine.

[Raeva]: And I'm starting my third year.

[Robert]: And I'm entering my third year as well. 

[Raeva]: I think that it was exciting to be the new class the first class at a school.

[Robert]: I had a picture of medical school with large lecture halls and long hours of studying into the night in large amounts of coffee.

[Raeva]: The way that the curriculum is organized as problem-based learning for our first two years.

[Donald]: Problem-based learning was successful for me because I like solving problems it helps me to learn and to work with such small groups it really promoted collegiality in a way that I had never experienced before and it really tied the facts together in a way which you can't get just from reading your books.

[Raeva]: It really had you thinking. It wasn't just sitting in the classroom and like listening to a lecture.

[Donald]: The first year as members of the Charter class there was a great outreach with the community and I ended up on a team working with PA [physician assistant] students from Jefferson College [of Health Sciences] and nurses from Jefferson College that decided to work with the Bradley Free Clinic.

[Robert]: The reason why I go to the Bradley Free Clinic and to other opportunities to see patients is because it's incredibly rewarding.

[Donald]: I just always felt a need to give back to the community.

[Robert]: The term "physician thought leader" when I first heard it I really didn't have a clue what that meant and over time I've been asked to think about that. It is part of our school.

[Raeva]: You're kind of always looking outside of the box is what I think physician thought leader means. You're constantly looking for more information you're not just happy with what you have.

[Robert]: For me it is having that willingness to adopt. To see what someone else is doing, which is smart and different and to not be afraid of it. To actually be willing to try it. It's the same kind of feeling that brought me here in the first place.

[Donald]: I'm very excited there's a lot of opportunity for me because of the school and and the success I've had here and I'm looking forward to getting practice. I still have two more years to go but I'm looking forward, looking forward for all of it.

[Robert]: So I'm going to attack the next two years in much the same way that I wanted to attack the first two years. Throw myself in. Every opportunity just seize it. They've opened up so much to us so just jump in and keep trying.

[Raeva]: I haven't decided kind of what path I want to take it so I'm really interested to go through all the rotations and see what I like.

[Robert]: And when it comes to what kind of physician I can tell you i will be an open minded physician, a humble physician, a team working physician, and whatever area that i go into those are the most critical tools that I'll be needing.

[Donald]: I'm definitely searching for something I'm going to love doings I like to work a lot so I wouldn't be here if I didn't.