When he’s not studying, Harvard Medical School student Sean Fletcher counsels Boston adolescents about HIV and AIDS at Boston Children’s Hospital. He mentors minority high school students interested in health professions. And he’s a research assistant at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Lewis Hayden, dead 125 years now, would be proud.

Fifty years after Harvard Medical School launched an historic initiative to promote diversity and inclusion in its student body, the community gathered to celebrate progress, take stock of remaining challenges, and plan the way forward toward an even more diverse and inclusive community.

The event held on October 28 marked the anniversary of the year that HMS moved to establish a program to recruit 15 African American students.

Fifty years ago, when Alvin Poussaint, professor of psychiatry and faculty associate dean for student affairs, first arrived at Harvard Medical School, he was a relatively young man. But he had already lived more than a few lifetimes and fought more than a few battles.

A Cornell-educated physician, Poussaint had marched from Selma to Montgomery just four years before in a demonstration that became one of the nation’s pivotal civil rights protests. 

“Est-ce qu’elle respire? (Is she breathing?)”

“Est-ce qu’elle pleure?” (Is she crying?)

My patient asked a barrage of questions as she tried to peer past the medical teams grouped around her newborn daughter.

Several members of the neonatal and pediatric cardiac ICU teams surrounded her baby, who was not crying or breathing. Soon, there was a burst of activity as they all promptly began resuscitative efforts.

It may be easy to forget that Harvard Medical School, wedged between towering hospital complexes and concrete and glass research facilities, is part of a vibrant neighborhood community. 

This year, HMS first-year medical students reached out to the School’s Mission Hill neighbors by hosting a Fall Fest party for students from the Mission Hill Grammar School on nearby St. Alphonsus Street.

HMS student council members, led by new student body president Lash Nolen, hosted the event, which provided an opportunity for medical students to connect and establish...

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For many of them, the act of donning their white coats for the very first time could only be described as nearly indescribable. 

“It feels unreal. I mean, I never would have imagined myself here as a kid. Now, we’re about to meet a patient. It’s really a miracle,” said King Fok, an entering Class of 2023 Harvard Medical School student who was born in Hong Kong and raised in Oregon.

A Harvard Medical School student and two admitted HMS students are among 30 recipients of 2019 Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans, a graduate school program for immigrants and children of immigrants.

Selected from an applicant pool of 1,767 for their potential to make significant contributions to United States society, culture or their academic fields, each recipient will receive up to $90,000 in funding for the graduate program of their choice.

The annual FABRIC production by Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Dental Medicine first-year students invites newly admitted students to join the community at the two schools.

This year’s theme, “Aje,” extends that invitation literally. "Aje" is Swahili for “Let them come,” said Bezaye Teshome, Castle Society student and FABRIC 2019 co-executive producer.

Troy Ameen has set his sights on becoming a surgical administrator, a profession he thinks will well prepare him to one day run an urban hospital. In such a position, this rising fourth-year medical student and first-year MBA candidate says he would effect change both small and large: improving how operating rooms function, and “instituting changes from an administrative perspective” that would address socioeconomic inequalities. All with the goal of changing how health care is delivered.

The 165 aspiring physicians hail from seven countries and 33 U.S. states, according to Robert Mayer, Harvard Medical School (HMS) faculty associate dean for admissions and Stephen B. Kay Family Professor of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Fifty-six percent are female and 44 percent are male. Nearly a quarter come from populations underrepresented in medicine. The 35 new dental students come from 19 states. That class is 71 percent female and... Read more about ‘The first superhero that I ever came to know’

Hundreds of Harvard affiliates walked out of class and gathered in Tercentenary Theater Monday to demonstrate support for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Temporary Protected Status ahead of a Tuesday Supreme Court hearing on DACA.