It’s been nearly four years since I joined the staff of Weill Cornell Medical College. In that time I’ve held three different titles and worked on over what feels like a hundred projects.
The first project I worked on, the one I was hired for, has stuck with me through all four years. In one capacity or another, I’ve always had a hand in the WCMC Elearning team, supporting the curriculum efforts at the Qatar branch of the Medical College. In the spirit of honesty, it hasn’t been my favorite project over the years: an operational effort that rarely gets acknowledged for keeping things running, but the first under fire when it falls apart. It’s been a rough existence, fighting with 270 millisecond latency and MPEG-4 encoders. (Good thing we’re not streaming live 99% of the time.)
On May 8th, the very first class of students graduated from WCMC-Q. This is the first time an American medical school has awarded M.D. degrees outside of US borders. These are the students that my work went towards teaching for those first two years when I was most involved with the project.
I’m proud to have been a part of this effort, knowing that it has achieved substantial good in the world. And I’m proud of the team I’ve worked with over those four years to help make fifteen students halfway around the world make history.
