[MUSIC PLAYING]
JAKE YOUNG: As someone with diverse interests, this is the perfect place
for you.
You can spend Monday afternoon in a research lab, and then Monday evening in a free clinic,
and then Tuesday morning working with business students on a startup idea, and then Tuesday
afternoon, you're mentoring students from the South Side of Chicago.
The curriculum and this institution, in particular, really gives you the opportunity to spread
your wings and figure out what you want out of a career so you're prepared for everything
that medicine has to offer.
HOLLY J. HUMPHREY: Once a student enrolls in our medical school, we are going to have
their back when it comes to every aspect of their experience, beginning with their performance
in our curriculum, extending to and including extracurricular activities, and also including
the various kinds of volunteer efforts that the students participate in, especially during
their first and second years in medical school.
ZAINA ZAYYAD: I knew from the first day that I came here that Pritzker really centers its
curriculum on the student.
We have professors always checking in to make sure that their approach is beneficial to
the students.
We have a Curriculum Review Committee that really incorporates student feedback.
We have about 88 students incoming every year, and I think that having such a small class
really fosters a sense of community.
HOLLY J. HUMPHREY: We have been very intentional about creating a class size that is well-matched
to the overall resources of the medical school, and that means access to a broad variety of
patients where the students can be taking the lead in interacting with our patients.
JAKE YOUNG: Pritzker gives you a really early exposure to the disparities that are prevalent
throughout the entire country in healthcare.
In the very first quarter, we have a healthcare disparities course that really highlights
the difficulties that many groups feel with accessing healthcare, understanding the healthcare
that they're given.
The science that you learn in your first two years will help you understand the diseases
that patients have, but the other things in the curriculum, like the healthcare disparities,
will help you understand the patient that's in front of you.
JEANNE FARNAN: Our students have a tremendous number of opportunities to have early clinical
exposure, from the clinical skills curriculum, where they're working hands-on with residents,
and interprofessional clinical experiences, where they're working with nursing, all the
way through working with some of our subspecialists in the operating rooms.
There's ample opportunity for students to be able to pursue clinical opportunities.
ZAINA ZAYYAD: From the very first quarter here, we have clinical skills experiences
that are exposing us to standardized patients.
From the very first year, we have the Longitudinal Program, where we shadow a physician every
week.
It goes from shadowing to actually interviewing patients to becoming involved in patient care.
JAKE YOUNG: Having the time in your first two years to take advantage of student-run
free clinics is one of the highlights of the Pritzker curriculum.
JEANNE FARNAN: We have a really robust student-run free clinic environment.
And the students not only take leadership, but they really do have complete ownership
of those clinics.
It allows them to work closely with faculty members.
It allows them to really have hands-on patient-based experiences, and it also allows them a venue
for service, as many of the clinics that the students work in provide care to patients
who are either uninsured or underinsured.
ZAINA ZAYYAD: To be able to have those experiences within my first month of being here, to be
out in the community, I think has been of huge benefit.
HOLLY J. HUMPHREY: Courses are taught by some of our all-star faculty.
In fact, the faculty teaching many of those courses have actually written the textbooks
or edited the textbooks that are used in medical schools all across America.
JEANNE FARNAN: Our faculty are really interested in and invested in the education of our students.
They are very willing and able to take students with them onto the wards, into their clinics,
into the operating rooms to give students exposure to specialties early and allow them
to really have that career exploration opportunity.
ZAINA ZAYYAD: We, as Pritzker medical students, have protected blocks of time to work on our
research.
JEANNE FARNAN: The Scholarship & Discovery program begins in the first year and continues
all the way through graduation.
They identify a project of interest and a mentor and then have opportunities throughout
their first and second year to work one-on-one with that individual on a project that's either
already ongoing or of their own design.
The students are incredibly successful in producing their own peer-reviewed research,
publications.
They present nationally and internationally.
HOLLY J. HUMPHREY: By the time the student is interviewing for residency, they have something
substantive to talk about because they've been working on their project, by that point,
for at least three years.
Beyond our school being physically located right in the heart of this campus, our hospitals
are here, too.
Our students literally walk out the front door and have an opportunity to participate
in other aspects of this campus or walk into the hospital and take care of our patients.
JAKE YOUNG: We can collaborate with the business school and take law school classes and end
up developing relationships with people across the institution.
HOLLY J. HUMPHREY: It's also the case that we happen to have the great advantage of being
located on the South Side of Chicago.
ZAINA ZAYYAD: We are in an urban setting.
We are surrounded by Chicago.
And at the same time, we're surrounded by this community that really helps us grow in
the ways that we are able to take care of patients.
JAKE YOUNG: We see patients from every level of socioeconomic status, with every background,
and we work very hard, I think, to provide the best possible care for all of them.
ZAINA ZAYYAD: Being at Pritzker has helped me grow in so many different ways.
And I think one of those ways is as a leader, as someone who's confident in my decisions,
as someone who is ready to take care of patients.
JAKE YOUNG: The culture at Pritzker-- it's a culture of intellectual curiosity, of service,
of an excitement for what you do.
And throughout your time at Pritzker, you develop and become the physician-in-training
that you want to be.
Whether you want to do research, whether you want to be a teacher, whether you want to
spend all your time in the clinical world, you get early exposure to all those things,
and you get to make that future for yourself.