Dr. Jerry M. Wallace walked to the podium. He said a few words and looked out at the Campbell University medical school Class of 2029, which settled in for the second day of orientation July 24.
Wallace turned to Campbell President Dr. William M. Downs and his wife, Kim. Downs, Campbell’s sixth president, began his term July 1.
To the Downses, who were there to help greet the medical students, Wallace offered a “hearty welcome.”
“I look forward to being with, caring for and, as much as I can, helping him be the president this university needs,” Wallace said.
The latest class entering the Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine (CUSOM) has 162 students.
“I see happy faces,” Wallace, an ordained Baptist minister who was named Campbell University’s fourth president in May 2003, told the class.
He wanted to know about them all.
He called on three students and asked them questions — What’s your name, and where are you from? Why do you want to become an osteopathic physician? Why did you choose Campbell?
Their answers, though similar, spoke to the school’s mission. Helping people and saving lives. Caring for the underserved and people in rural communities, in a holistic, compassionate way.
Body, mind and spirit.
“When we’re well, we’re well in all three of those areas,” said Wallace for whom the medical school is named.
“But when we’re sick in one, it’s contagious. We become sick in body and mind, when we’re sick in our spirit.”
The average age of students is 23 in the Class of 2029, which includes 86 women and 76 men. Overall, 88 are from North Carolina. In other Southeast states, 18 of the new students are from Florida, 10 from Virginia, five from Georgia, four from South Carolina and one each from Alabama and Tennessee.
First-year med students William Connor Roshinski and Madison Peck knew one another when they lived in South Florida. Roshinski earned his bachelor’s degree from Florida State University, Peck from Clemson University.
“Out of every school that I toured and that I was able to see … not only was I very impressed with the community and everything (Campbell) had to offer, but also the facility,” Peck said. “The campus is gorgeous, and I really think that for the next four years I’ll be provided a great education.”
New student orientation at CUSOM began Wednesday, July 23, and continued through Friday, July 25. Classes begin Monday, July 28.
Faculty and staff members offered primers on myriad aspects of the new students’ coming education in osteopathic medicine. They talked about peer learning and advising, global mission trips and community clinics and about CUSOM policies around AI. About behavioral health services and student support.
To succeed as a medical student, to succeed in life, you need to be the best version of yourself, interim med school dean Dr. David Tolentino told the students.
Physically, spiritually and mentally.
Be good to yourself, he said. The trip is a long one, but there truly is light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. Be kind to yourself. Be good to yourself.
“Know that someone is looking out for you,” Tolentino said. “You are going to be where you are meant to be.”
