Good Luck, Second-Year Middletown Students!
First-year students at TouroCOM-Middletown send off their upperclassmen with homemade care packages.
As the inaugural class at TouroCOM-Middletown finishes up their second year of medical school, preparing to take their board exams and head out to hospitals and rotations for their third and fourth years, they will be accompanied by homemade gift bags—courtesy of their underclassmen.
“This was a great opportunity for us to show our sincerest gratitude for all the second-years have done for us,” said Jay Zhang, OMS I, SGA representative. “From guiding us through our first frightful exam to showing us where to de-stress, they have all helped us develop as students, individuals, and as future physicians.”
Organizers of the initiative, nicknamed “Project Starbust,” were Era Singh, Natasha Wu, Hsin Li, and Ivana Choudhury. The 135 gift bags—which contained snacks, tea, candy, a Starbucks gift card, pens, sticky notes, origami, as well as letters from Dr. Jones, the Project Starbust team, and first-year and Master’s degree students—took several days to create. The handmade gift bags were packaged together with the help of TouroCOM-Middletown’s SGA (Johnson Jay Zhang, Kana Maeji, Nicole Graham, Lina Acopians and Ivana Choudhury).
“They are an inaugural class that truly paved the way for us,” said Natasha Wu, OMS-1. “They test-ran all the classes for us, started so many clubs for us, and really built a community from the ground up. From the summer anatomy TAs who taught us all the best mnemonics, to my student mentor who gave the best advice, to the second-years who gave us hugs and snacks after we finished ‘Week 9’ exams, I am humbled by their wisdom and kindness,” she said.
Reactions from the second-years were enthusiastic, reported Wu.
“The origami, the poem from Dr. Jones, and the little write-up about being in the first class…these were so incredibly thoughtful, and are all definitely things that I'm saving to look back at, long after I graduate,” said Christine Miller, OMS II. “Thank you, first-years, for helping to send us off on such a positive and kind note.”
