GHHS Member Jason Kam

Before starting medical school GHHS member Jason Kam volunteered in a leper colony in South Korea – an experience that he says taught him “how to come out of my comfort zone and open my heart.”  Last year Jason won the Anthony Parisi award for being the student who best exemplifies the Golden Rule. In a survey of peers conducted as part of the GHHS selection process, Jason was widely acclaimed for his compassion, trustworthiness, friendliness, service to others,  and professionalism.  A member of the clinical faculty has said that, “Often Jason would bring up aspects of the patient’s social situation, or personal points about his patients that clearly showed he had taken the time and effort to not only learn their medical problems, but also learn what made them who they were. This is a sign of a well rounded, empathetic and truly humanistic student physician.”    

Linda P. Rowe, EdD
UICOMP GHHS Chapter Advisor

GHHS Member Cynthia Koh

Cindy Koh volunteers with several community service projects, has written for and organized an online medical student literary journal, and has sung with the student a cappella group. Faculty members comment regularly on her extraordinary empathy, respectfulness, and patience with even the most “difficult” patients.  The Gold Humanism Honor Society selection committee was impressed by Cindy's profound understanding of the ways that illness can sometimes obscure the personal "narrative" that makes each individual unique and beautiful - and by her ability to see past illness and empathize with the person within the "patient".

Linda P. Rowe, EdD

UICOMP GHHS Chapter Advisor

GHHS Member Stephen Ryan Gore

Ryan Gore's active profile of involvement in leadership and service with school and community played an important role in his selection for the Gold Humanism Honor Society. Ryan's classmates have elected him to represent them on multiple committees, including student government, budget advisory, and curriculum evaluation. He volunteers with the Exergaming and Friendship House programs, and is a co-president of the Medicine-Pediatrics Interest Group. Ryan’s experience of surviving a serious illness during his early twenties contributed to his insight that humanism in medicine requires that physicians “put themselves in the patient’s gown.”

Linda P. Rowe, Ed.D.

UICOMP GHHS Chapter Advisor

Every emotion will be shared

OSF Saint Francis Medical Center has definitely given me the change to see a plethora of different cultures, races, sexual orientations, and ethnicities.  I believe the secret behind honest humanism comes with treating every patient in the same manner, with the same respect and the same quality of care no matter if the patient is a friendly or difficult person.  With this in mind, I know that I am able to make a special connection with every patient. The connection is nver the same either, which makes medicine such an exciting career. I'm not afraid to (and am actually ecstatic to) laugh with my patients (like the patient who jokes about leaving the hospital every time I see her), educate my patients about their illnesses, talk with my patients about their lives (like my patient who confessed to me of a drug addiction), share with my patients' families when they are in room (like my comatose patient in the MICU), and even shed a tear with my patients (like while hugging my patient who decided to make her baby comfort measures). I understand that every emotion will be shared while practicing medicine,and no matter what the emotion is, the patients and their loved ones will always need someone there for them. I'm excited to get the chance to be that person.

Matt Howard, UICOMP Class of 2012
GHHS member

GHHS Member Sabrina Gerkowicz

The mini-biolgraphy of Sabrina Gerkowicz presented at the GHHS illustrates the characteristics of a compassionate physician. Sabrina says that she had “wonderful role models” in grandparents who endured the hardships of post-WWII Poland and communist Cuba with their values intact, and parents who met the challenges of immigration with determination and hard work. Sabrina is involved in numerous volunteer and leadership activities and is currently the co-chair of the student advocate program.  In nominating Sabrina for this award, a community preceptor wrote, “I was impressed with Sabrina the very first day she knocked on the first patient’s door. … [she] clearly understood that patients may have some reservations about medical students and her explanation [of her role] and her gift of listening, truly listening, quickly put the patient at ease. At the end of each visit, Sabrina would shake the patient’s hand and thank them. I was impressed by her open display of respect and gratitude.”

Linda P. Rowe, Ed.D.

UICOMP GHHS Advisor

GHHS member Alex Cantrell

Alex Cantrell has won many academic honors, but was tapped for GHHS in recognition of his compassion. One of Alex’s professors wrote that “you can see from Alex’s CV [that] he is known for his research and volunteerism. What cannot be discerned from his CV except indirectly is his genuine empathy for those around him, his integrity, and his wonderful endearing kindness and humor.  … He is one of the smartest and kindest students that I have had the pleasure to work with.” 

Linda P. Rowe, EdD

UICOM-P GHHS Chapter Advisor

An ambition to simply help care for patients

Humanism, respect, understanding and compassion are at the very core of being a medical professional.  From a very young age I knew that I wanted to be a medical professional. The science behind medicine definitely intrigued me, but it was the particular bond with a patient during care that intrigued me the most. in the coming years I found myself gravitating toward volunteer positions and community outreach programs.

After my first year of medical school I volunteered at Banos Hospital in Ecuador. The hospital had limited supplies and resources, and the community itself was impoverished. I understood the hardships that the citizens faced, but I was excited to wake every morning to help serve them in the emergency room, the operating room, or even serve as a translator for visiting American physicians. Although my Spanish was very broken, the patients' smiles and enduring chuckles at my grammatical errors were a perfect example fo why I wanted to volunteer in Ecuador. Even in a different language, I was able to realize my ambition to simply help care for patients. I shared my compassion with the people and their families who graciously invited me to live with them for a month.

Once I became a third year medical student, I could not wait until I was able to see patients and be able to identify with them, help them, and, most importantly (to me), just simply take a few minutes of my day every day to find our something new about my patient. Multiple patients have told me how much they appreciate me just talkign to them for even 10 minutes because they feel as though they have no one else with whom to talk. One homeless patient informed me that he had shared more with me in our 30 minute conversation than he had shared with anyone in many years simply because I lent an open ear.

Matthew Howard, UICOM-P Class of 2012
(excerpted from Gold Humanism essay)

GHHS Member Matt Howard

Matt Howard, UICOMP Class of 2012,  is well known for his warm, outgoing personality, his energetic contributions to a wide range of volunteer service programs, and his harmonizing with fellow students in their a cappella singing group.  Matt’s second-year classmates elected him to receive the Gloria Arndt Award for being the “kindest, most compassionate, and most altruistic” of their peers. In his fourth year, those same classmates selected him to receive the Merck Manual Award - also known as the "doctor's doctor" award.  Many factors contributed to Matt's being selected for the Gold Humanism Honor Society, but I think these comments from a physician in a community clinic through which Matt rotated say it well:  “[Matt] did an excellent job of communicating …. He always seemed to be able to anticipate the needs of the people around him and provide for those needs. He is a genuinely caring person. Oftentimes he could be found helping an elderly person out to the waiting area or even out to their car. … Weeks after Matt had successfully completed his rotation my patients would ask where he was.”  

Linda Rowe, EdD

Peoria GHHS Chapter Advisor