Editor’s note: Under the leadership of directors Grace Miller and Leslie Bruce, UC San Diego’s Post Baccalaureate Premedical program graduated its first cohort of 28 students in ceremonies held at the Faculty Club on June 13.
READY: The proud graduates of the first Post-Doc, Pre-Med program.
Presented by UC San Diego Extension in cooperation with the UC San Diego School of Medicine, the innovative 12-month program helps students to strengthen their medical school applications through rigorous academics, advising, and skill-building.
Successful completion of the program gives these students a significantly better opportunity to achieve their ultimate goal – that of being accepted into medical school and succeeding as physicians.
Below, program co-director Leslie Bruce reflects on the new graduates:
“It was almost as though they’d known each other all their lives. That’s what the recent graduation of the inaugural class of the UC San Diego Post-Baccalaureate Premedical program felt like.
"Students completing the rigorous 12-month program were finally finished and clearly proud – not just of their own accomplishment but of each other’s.
“The 28 students had been through thick and thin together, sharing each academic milestone, and ultimately created the very supportive learning community that program founders had envisioned.
"Integral to the learning community and key to student success were the carefully chosen advisors and faculty who shepherded them all along the way.
“Parents, teachers, significant others and the students themselves noted at the graduation ceremony that the students had changed greatly over the course of the year. They have come far and are more confident and capable of mastering both medical school and medical practice.
“Their patients will be the lucky ones.”