The Students Are Here! The Students Are Here!

To be fair, our 3rd and 4th year students have been utilizing their brand new building since we moved in, but we’re still super excited to see our first and second year students!

On August 29, a symbolic beginning of the four-year journey into the medical profession took place. It is called the White Coat Ceremony. Dean Marsha D. Rappley, M.D. formally welcomed 200 first-year medical students to the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. Of these students, 100 will attend classes in Grand Rapids at the Secchia Center and 100 will attend classes on the MSU campus in East Lansing.

*Full credit to the students who created this video, including Brian Fung who wrote, directed, produced and edited it. Check out the YouTube page for a list of students, faculty, and staff involved in its creation.

The challenge is to get the attention of candidates who sometimes have preconceived notions about the Michigan economy or life in Grand Rapids, says Dr. Marsha D. Rappley, dean of the college. But, like Fazleabas, “once they come, they want to come back,” she says.

“There is an opportunity to do something here that, quite frankly, is not being done many other places in the country,” says Leach, 56, an Alma College alum. “It’s really an opportunity to do something from the ground level. That message of vision is the same vision that I was able to communicate to Dr. Risinger and Dr. Fazleabas, and both of them were also visionaries in that way.”

So with the physical infrastructure built, the job, as Fazleabas says, is “to build a nucleus of excellent scientists that are going to attract others” to continue developing a world-class health care setting.

Fazleabas followed Leach to MSU and now some of his researchers from Chicago are coming to join him. He also just hired a Chinese researcher who had been working in Sweden. Vocation aside, what the incoming professionals are finding is that the culture of Grand Rapids is world-class in its own right. Among the recruits is an avid golfer who most certainly finds this area green.

“The bottom line is this community has all of the arts and entertainment that my wife and I need,” Leach says. “It has a tremendous sense of community that’s palpable. It’s very refreshing.”