Thank You for Making History with Penn Medicine's Biggest Campaign Ever
From Rosemary Mazanet, GR'81, M'86,
Chair, Penn Medicine Campaign Cabinet and
Co-Chair, University of Pennsylvania Making History Campaign
Penn Medicine took a great leap forward over the past seven years with a record-setting campaign that not only reached an ambitious $1 billion goal, but also surpassed it by $370 million! It’s official—we are overachievers with an outsize love of our School and record of accomplishment that helps Penn inspire confidence and generosity far beyond our alumni circle. On behalf of Penn Medicine, thank you, and congratulations on this rare feat!
Because of the Campaign, Penn Medicine’s largest to date, the Perelman School added 40 endowed professorships, and more than $730 million in new research funds. I am especially proud that we more than doubled our annual student aid. More medical students than ever before can now afford a Perelman School of Medicine education. This simple fact is already changing lives:
"There is no way to express my appreciation for your generosity to the school and to me personally," says scholarship recipient Brendan Sullivan, M'13. "I am so grateful for the opportunities I have had to explore my intellectual passions, volunteer in the Philadelphia community, and make lasting relationships with friends and mentors. Thank you again for your contribution to my education."
Penn Medicine is at an all-time high for alumni individual giving and involvement: 8,750 individual donors contributed more than 20,000 gifts, adding more than $60 million for scholarships and $10 million in unrestricted dollars for the School. During the Campaign, hundreds of alumni participated on leadership and reunion boards, directly influencing our 115% increase in reunion giving and 80% increase in Medical Alumni Weekend attendance. We are very grateful for your time, service, enthusiasm, and presence.
Who else noticed the strength of Penn Medicine? Ray and Ruth Perelman made their naming gift to the Perelman School of Medicine because our School prepares such brilliant doctors. Penn Medicine attracted the largest single naming gift of any medical school in the country, and I am proud that this gift will strengthen our School for generations to come.
Thinking of those generations, the Making History campaign also saw fundraising for the new Medical Education Center off to a promising start. The plans for and progress of this bold new structure are sure to be a highlight as we look forward to the School’s 250th anniversary in 2015.
It has been a great pleasure to serve as campaign chair. Penn Medicine is a terrific community that I am glad to be a part of. I hope that you have enjoyed connecting with your classmates and being a part of the School’s progress and success as much as I have.
Please save the date and come celebrate on April 19th at Penn Park from 5 – 9 pm. You deserve to be recognized for your support! It is a time to celebrate YOU!
Legacy Giving Keeps Innovation Alive
By supporting M.D./M.B.A. students, the Alan K. Keay, Jr. Endowed Scholarship will be the first of its kind – and will strengthen the already formidable connections between Penn Medicine and Wharton.
A generous legacy gift, the Keay Scholarship shows that even the most traditional mode of philanthropy has the power to break new ground. Planned gifts provide significant resources to Penn Medicine – for instance, they constituted 10% of Penn Medicine’s campaign total.
The Keay Scholarship will support bright, young student physicians who are motivated to explore medical costs as well as cures at Penn Medicine. Young doctors like Oren K. Isacoff, C’06, W’06, GR’12, M’13, WG’13, a Wharton and Arts and Sciences graduate who left the investment side of the biotech industry to become a doctor.
"It was always a thought in the back of my mind that medicine would shine through for me," said Mr. Isacoff.
While a medical student, Mr. Isacoff received a master’s in bioethics, and will be graduating this year with an M.B.A. “The more electives I took, the more I became faced with questions of the cost of care. I became very intrigued and fascinated by the business questions in medicine, and wanted to explore them more – and a mentor advised me to apply to Wharton’s Health Care Management Program.”
Penn has long been home to physician-scientists pushing the boundaries of research. With the critical problems now faced by hospitals, combined degrees are growing in popularity as prospective physicians feel additional skills will help them better accomplish their health care objectives. Currently, half of Penn Medicine students are enrolled in a combined degree program. Nationally, the average number of dual degree graduates is less than 10 percent.
At Penn Medicine curious students receive serious attention from faculty who are experts, and often leaders, in more than one field of study. The Perelman School’s collaborative nature nourishes inquisitive students like Mr. Isacoff, who will build on their experiences and education to become the future leaders of medicine.
"The opportunities afforded to me at Penn Medicine have opened doors. Here I have been able to seek out and link up with the right people, and have built my own network. I feel like I can reach out and talk with anyone in the School or the Health System. That speaks to the collaborative culture and the approachable and down-to-earth nature of its people."
To learn more about leaving your own legacy to the Penn Medicine program, please contact Christine Ewan by phone at 215-898- 9486, or by email at cewan@upenn.edu.
Need to Make a Connection?
Penn Medicine Has an App for That!
Penn Medicine is pleased to announce a new partnership with Doximity—a Facebook-style, mobile app revolutionizing how physicians connect and communicate.
Doximity is a health care networking tool designed for, and exclusively populated by, medical professionals. With one in six of America’s doctors already linked in, this fast growing network is the world’s largest medical professional directory.
Available for iPhone and Android, the Web, a secure SMS messaging system, or direct fax from a phone or computer, Doximity provides medical-grade security and a platform for HIPAA-compliant, physician-to-physician text and fax communications. Its state-of-the-art mobile technology also allows members to tap into everything from contact information for referrals to current literature to personal schedules.
Penn Medicine is currently the only medical school on the East Coast with an individual alumni application. Our alumni have something others do not—the ability to easily find classmates throughout the world via a geo-locating directory and a platform for communication through a forum function.
Doximity keeps you in touch with faculty and alumni at home or on your travels, and connects you to the School with notifications of events in your area. Sign up today!
I Play One on TV!
Come Hear Author Joseph Turow Speak on TV Docs This Medical Alumni Weekend
Pulling from his book, Playing Doctor: Television, Storytelling and Medical Power, Joseph Turow, Ph.D., will offer a fun and insightful look at prime time MDs. Save the date for this Annenberg School for Communication professor’s talk on Friday, May 10th from 2:30 - 3:45 pm at the Rubenstein Auditorium, Smilow Center for Translational Research.
Check out the trailer to hear more about his book and see clips from recent shows!