MESSAGE FROM THE ASSOCIATE DEAN OF STUDENT AFFAIRS 
 

Welcome to the University of Massachusetts Medical School! I would like to add my congratulations to you on your decision to pursue the practice of medicine as a career and to come to our Medical School. Medicine is one of the most interesting, frustrating, responsible, and complex professions to enter. The path before you is both highly challenging and highly rewarding.

Medicine is a profession, which requires of its members high standards of ethical conduct and honesty. Trust is an essential component of the practice of medicine - from the trust of the patients in their physicians' ability and judgement to the trust of the healthcare and research team members in each other's contributions. While I know that there may be times when you feel that the goal of functioning as a physician seems distant, the time will pass more quickly than you imagine. We consider all students to be junior colleagues and we look for you to hold yourselves in to the ethical standards of physicians from the time you enter the School.

The major role of the Office of Student Affairs is to provide help for you in the extracurricular and curricular aspects of learning both the science and the art of medicine. We hope that you will see Student Affairs as a supportive and responsive place in which you can find help for your efforts in coping with the academic and personal demands of medical school. Helping medical student to develop into empathic, compassionate, knowledgeable physicians who are enthusiastic about their profession is one of the most exciting tasks I could conceive of undertaking. I look forward to working with each of you.

Mai-Lan Rogoff, M.D.

Associate Dean for Student Affairs