First-Year

Posts that are topical for incoming or current first-year medical students.

Black and white photo of Matt Breseman face wearing surgical mask and with EEG leads taped to forehead and temples

The Student Becomes the Patient

Early on in my illness a friend sent me a meme.

“How do medical students get sick; can’t they just open a textbook and cure themselves?” it asked.

Although it wasn’t that simple, I learned a lot from the process of trying to discover what was wrong with me…I was getting a crash course on the art of medicine from the patient perspective, with my medical bill jokingly serving as the cost of tuition.

Stock image of starry night sky with dark silhouette of pine trees in the background.

U-MOO, I-MOO, WeAll-MOO

The UVM-Med Outdoor Orientation, or U-MOO, is an optional camping trip offered to incoming first-year students at the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine. In this post, medical student Jake Ermolovich reflects on his experience as a leader of the trip in August 2021.

Criminal Records as a Metric in Medical Student Admissions

The University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine community proactively grapples with the most equitable ways to accomplish our mission “to engage with our communities to benefit Vermont and the world.” I am privileged to attend a school that fosters and elevates key discussions, such as a recent discussion around how our college can more effectively recruit persons taking action to seek a more just world – a conversation that was heavily influenced by the mass arrest of protestors using their first amendment rights to advocate for racial justice and condemn police brutality.
The University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine community proactively grapples with the most equitable ways to accomplish our mission “to engage with our communities to benefit Vermont and the world.” I am privileged to attend a school that fosters and elevates key discussions. Read more…