At the end of the spring semester, Veronica Treviño will be one of 39 medical students who will be the first graduating class from the UTRGV School of Medicine.
“It’s incredibly exciting,” Treviño said. “I’m from the [Rio Grande] Valley and I went to [the University of Texas-Pan American] … and then graduated from UTRGV. So, when I started this process, I’d always wanted to be a doctor. … I thought I was going to have to go to medical school somewhere else.”
Treviño, who graduated in Spring 2016 from UTRGV, majored in biology while minoring in chemistry and Spanish medical terminology.
Betty Monfort, senior assistant dean for admissions and student services for the School of Medicine, followed the medical students’ journey throughout the years.
“I was looking at their admissions pictures, the ones they sent with their applications, the other day, and some of them now even have gray hair,” Monfort said. “Some of them don’t even have hair. They have matured. This first class is the class, to me, that took a risk. They were pioneers. It was a new school, new university. But these kids knew that they wanted medicine and they have heart. These are the most altruistic kids that I’ve seen in over 33 years of doing this.”
Treviño is seeking a pediatrics residency and hopes in five years to come back to the Valley to open her own private practice.
Monfort said on March 20 the medical school will find out where the students will be completing their residency during Match Day.
“So, they learn exactly where they’re going to be working and we’re going to have a big, big celebration here,” she said. “It’s done all over the United States at the same time. So, for the medical schools in the [Eastern Time Zone], it starts at 12 p.m. We open up the letters at 11 a.m., then [Mountain Time Zone], then over on the [Pacific Standard Time] at 9 a.m.”
Dr. Leon Vela, senior associate dean for education, said the medical students will pursue various residencies where they will train and specialize in their chosen areas in medicine.
The medical students can pursue various specialties, such as family medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics, gynecology, psychiatry and emergency medicine, according to Vela.
The class originally started with 50 students.
“Right now, we have 39 and that’s because some along the way have had, you know, maternity leaves or have gone to [pursue] master’s in public health or have done research,” Monfort said.
As previously reported by The Rider on Oct. 26, 2015, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) granting preliminary accreditation is a step in the development for the UTRGV School of Medicine. LCME had a scheduled visit in 2019 but was rescheduled for February 2020.
“What this committee does, the LCME, they assess how the program is going,” Monfort said. “How the students are doing. [Are] our facilities adequate? Do we have enough faculty? Do we have enough clinical sites? They do an assessment and they do this for every single medical school. The new medical schools get more visits. The older medical schools get visits every four to seven years. So, that’s [why] they’re coming again. It’s now the next step in February.”
Vela said the May graduation will be a great day for UTRGV.
“A day of great celebration for the university to be ushering in this era of medical education,” he said. “I think for the university, a great, great sense of pride, seeing these students graduate and pursue their dreams of being physicians [who] are going to serve patients and impact the lives of patients and families in their professional careers.”
