Welcome M.D. Class of 2028

Nervous. Excited. Inspired. Ready.

Those were just a few of the words VCU School of Medicine’s 188 new students used to describe how they felt on their very first day of medical school.

With 103 students from Virginia and the rest from across North America and as far away as South Korea, the Class of 2028 arrived on the MCV Campus on Monday, July 22 for their two-week orientation known as Transition to Medical School. While addressing the class on day one, Arturo Saavedra, M.D., Ph.D., dean of the VCU School of Medicine, emphasized that kindness, compassion and collaboration, in addition to their formal training, will be integral to their experience while they’re here.

“You’ve already excelled as a single person,” Saavedra said. “You’re now going to learn to redefine that success by succeeding in teams, learning to be part of a group and creating something bigger than the sum of your parts.”

In the Class of 2028, you’ll find...

• Thrill seekers who have gone bungee jumping, cliff jumping, SCUBA diving, skydiving, spelunking, paragliding, ziplining in the Honduran jungle and cage diving with sharks off the coast of South Africa.
• Twenty-five basketball players, 15 soccer players, 21 tennis players, a badminton player and 30 runners.
• Two twins and a triplet.
• Speakers of American Sign Language, Arabic, Bulgarian, Farsi, French, Hindi, Japanese, Japanese Sign Language, Portuguese, Tamil and Urdu.
• Athletes who have competed in table tennis, esports, powerlifting, dance, running, swimming, track, cross country, rowing and alpine skiing.
• Twenty-five medical assistants, 14 scribes, 12 technicians, five EMTs and two registered nurses.

On their way to medical school, they…

• Lived in Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, China, Germany, Guam, Hungary, Japan, India, Ireland, Mauritius, Morrocco and South Korea.
• Cared for at least 33 foster dogs and 24 baby turtles.
• Hiked Alaska’s Mount Denali, California’s Mount Whitney, the Colorado Rocky Mountains, Utah’s Mount Zion, Virginia’s Old Rag Mountain, Washington’s Goat Rocks Wilderness and Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro.
• Raced four half-marathons, two full marathons, a triathlon and a 50K.
• Gained early medical experience in dermatology, family medicine, urology, plastic surgery, psychiatry, ophthalmology, oncology, cardiology, neurology, orthopaedics and pediatrics.
• Volunteered at a therapeutic farm, created an American Sign Language in medicine course at their university and set up free clinics in Honduras.
• Performed at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center.
• Worked as teachers, coaches, tutors, a ski patroller, a boba-rista and a touring puppeteer.
• Taught dance, violin to elementary students, swimming, piano, physics, English as a second language, meditation and tai chi.
• Creatives who crochet, paint watercolor, write poetry, dance salsa, play ukelele, restore vintage cars and bake gourmet dog treats.

Send us your stories!

The School of Medicine communications team is always looking to highlight student success, faculty achievement, cutting-edge research and innovative initiatives around the MCV Campus. If you have an idea for a story, please submit your pitch to laura.ingles@vcuhealth.org.