Meet Medical and Nursing Students

School of Medicine faculty are using the capabilities of ChatGPT, to improve students’ learning experiences.

The Changing Landscape of Medical School Admissions

Last spring, when Prince Boadi accepted an offer to attend Duke University School of Medicine starting in the fall of 2020, he knew the experience—leaving his family and friends in Chicago, learning his way around Durham, meeting new people, and taking on the rigors of medical school—would be different from anything else he’d ever done.

Liane Lau spent several years working in publishing in New York and Philadelphia and was quite successful at it. However, deep down she knew she wanted to do something more meaningful.

Much like his mother, who is a musician, Jason Dictson has always had a passion for the arts. It led him to earn a degree in vocal performance and opera from Portland State University. However, a major life event put him on a much different path, driving him to pursue a career as a nurse practitioner.

Kitty Hawk, located on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, is known to many tourists as a great spot for a carefree beach getaway. Julia Martin gained a different perspective of the town while growing up there, par­ticularly when it comes to accessing health care.

Tedrick L. Vernon III first became a Duke nurse anesthesia student in 2015, but he says Duke helped him grow into his nursing career well be­fore that. He previously spent a few years working as a nurse in Duke’s emergency department, where he thrived on the challenge and gained confidence in his skills as a provider.

Georgia Beasley was a student-athlete at Duke when she met Sara, an 11-year-old girl, who was sitting on the bleachers at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The young girl was waiting for her father, who was late to pick her up from a Duke basketball summer camp. Beasley asked her to catch rebounds for her, and Sara happily agreed. Later, her father introduced himself as none other than Henry Friedman, MD, deputy director of the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke.

Witnessing her mother battle cancer while going through a divorce was tough for Gabrielle Lasanta. A high school student at the time, she wasn’t sure if her newly single mother, burdened with the cost of cancer treatments, could afford to send her to college. But Lasanta’s mother wouldn’t hear of her forgoing a college education. They had come too far as a family.

Gabrielle Harris’s life was forever changed in November 2012. That was when her grandmother died suddenly from a stroke. It was also when she made an important career decision that she hopes will ulti­mately make lives better for stroke survivors and their families.