Dan Henderson UConn Medical Student Profile

What first attracted me to UConn was the unique culture of learning that faculty and students maintain on campus. Far beyond having an innovative and pass/fail curriculum, the Health Center community is a place where you feel like your learning and enjoyment of medicine are paramount. Looking back, five years (yes, five years) after first joining the Health Center community, it’s clear that UConn’s culture has played a tremendous role in shaping my professional development.

I still remember debriefing to a friend after my UConn interview: “It was a lot warmer and fuzzier than I was ready for.” Having prepared the kind of high-pressure barrage of questions I’d heard of through peers, I was relieved — and amazed — by the open and relaxed attitude on display at the Health Center. After I was accepted and began as a student, I realized the glimpse from the interview day only scratched the surface. A standout moment was in the fall of my first year, when I found myself without a working car. Word spread through friends, and that day, as I passed him in the hallway, the Dean of Students stopped me to offer me his son’s SUV. “He’s away at college — it’s all yours!”

Through the fall of my first year, my classmates and I quickly bonded with each other, as hours of study together brought us together. What is special about UConn is how the faculty similarly bonded with us. Senior teachers in our toughest subjects routinely offered informal review sessions, often staying late with us in the anatomy lab or at the microscope. Others hosted holiday parties, day-long retreats, scholarly meetings, and even a camping trip linked to a symposium on wilderness medicine. With so much time together, it was easy to connect closely to friends within the class and to advisors and mentors (and for some of us, friends as well) among the faculty.

“Without a doubt, UConn trains us to become great doctors... even more valuable, however, is UConn’s success in making training, the journey of becoming a physician, as rich and valuable as the destination itself. ”

In navigating medical school, the value of these relationships cannot be overstated. The path to becoming a doctor is replete with anxiety-inducing decisions. Having not just a single, nominal “advisor”, but a veritable council of caring faculty and student colleagues can make a world of difference. In my case, the help and support of faculty provided the opportunity to spend my first year summer in Zambia, studying the effects of socio-demographic factors on HIV transmission within couples. Returning for second year hoping to learn more about the growing movement for health care reform, faculty encouragement drove classmates and me to take on national leadership roles in the health policy efforts of the American Medical Student Association (AMSA).

In my third year, while considering an opportunity for a one-year fellowship in Washington, DC, during the unprecedented health care reform push of 2009, faculty and friends went beyond supportive: “You’d be crazy to miss this year!” urged one faculty member. Postponing graduation, leaving a tight circle of friends, and risking my academic future -- these prospects were daunting. I was ready to pass on the fellowship, but friends and faculty provided the confidence to take a risk. The gamble proved immensely fulfilling, and after a year of advocacy working in DC and visiting medical schools nationwide, I’m taking a second year away from medicine to earn a Master of Public Health degree in health policy and management. I hope to return in July to complete fourth year, apply to residency in internal medicine, and build a career around the continual improvement of health through promotion of primary care and population health.

I chose UConn because of the feeling within the halls of the Health Center, and came to learn that it feels like an extended family. Little did I know how profoundly the UConn approach -- perceived at first as a gut feeling -- would impact my professional trajectory. Close friends from my original class have since scattered to residencies all over the country, but we keep in touch. I joke about the long hours they’re working, and they joke about my taking 6 years to graduate. Without a doubt, UConn trains us to become great doctors. What might be even more valuable, however, is UConn’s success in making training, the journey of becoming a physician, as rich and valuable as the destination itself.

Student and Faculty Profiles