This year for the first time, students from Michigan State University’s main campus in East Lansing will be joined by their counterparts from Southeast Michigan when they become Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine at spring commencement.
The ceremony for medical degrees will be held at 7 p.m. May 2 in the Breslin Center at MSU. A total of 285 osteopathic medical students will take part in the commencement.
The MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine expanded in 2009 with new sites in two locations: the Detroit Medical Center downtown and the Macomb University Center in Clinton Township. The sites offer the same state-of-the-art classrooms and learning laboratories available in East Lansing, along with proximity to several teaching hospitals and opportunities to serve populations in need.
Among the first graduates from the Macomb site is Kate Karpinski, the class vice president. A native of nearby Waterford, Karpinski said Macomb was a natural choice.
“I was born and raised in the area, so I was thrilled to be able to stay in the state and be involved with the community I love,” she said. “It also was really nice to be in a smaller group of people, to build those friendships and relationships. The college does an amazing job of supporting students and making them feel they’re smart enough to succeed in medicine. And it was thrilling to be the first group through the Macomb site.”
Ian Hudson, vice president of the first graduating Detroit class, said his group also formed close ties.
“Being assigned to Detroit was one of the best things that could have happened,” he said. “We very quickly became a family. We were the first ones through, so everything was brand new. Even the littlest details we all had to make up as we went along. What were the politics of the coffee pot? How would we schedule study areas? Where will we get a ping pong table?”
Hudson, who was raised and educated in Southern California, will leave for Hawaii after graduation to study emergency medicine through the U.S. Army’s Health Professions Scholarship Program.
Karpinski, on the other hand, is glad to be staying near home; she accepted a residency in pediatrics at St. John Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit.
“Thank goodness,” she said. “I’d like to stay in a hospital system here. That’s the ultimate goal. I’d hate to move. I’ve grown some pretty strong roots here.”