RVU'S END OF THE YEAR GALA!

The End of the Year Gala marks the end of the the first year for the Class of 2013! Some may have said this day would never come, but it did. Congratulations everyone! The Gala gave everyone a reason to come out and celebrate the awesome achievement of making it through a year of medical school.

Student Doctors and guests were joined by faculty and staff for a great night of dinner and dancing.

After cocktail hour and socializing, the fun began. Student and faculty awards were given out. For the faculty the Fighting Prairie Dog Award went to Dr. Joseph Stasio, the Unsung Hero Award went to Matt Griebel, the Administrative Award went to Lisa Bolstad, the William Osler Teaching Award for Excellence in Biomedical Science was a tie between Dr. Walter Buck and Dr. Richard Garrison, and the A.T. Still Teaching Award for Excellence in Clinical Science went to Dr. Joseph Stasio!

For the student doctor awards, the top 10% of the class of 2013 was recognized (listed alphabetically): Michael Allender, Casey Bitting, Brent Enniss, Joshua Garfein, Thomas Githens, Bonnie Hunt, Tyler Hurst, Eric Mast, Erika Penabaker, Sheena Ray, Justin Stoll, Lauren Tobin, Katie Truettner, Jon Vaux, Tyler Voigt, and Kayleigh Zerr.

The Department awards were also awarded to some first year student doctors. Benjamin Foreman received the FSM award. Brent Barbour received the research recognition award.

The Class of 2013 Student Leader award went to current class president Josh Gazzetta.

The student doctor congeniality award went to Amanda Jo Cameron, and the winner of the class of 2013 class clown award was Russell Pieper.

The class of 2013 book nerd award went to Hugo Rivera, and last but not least, the class of 2013 squeaky wheel award went to Nabila Waheed.

A special congratulations to all of the award winners, and to the other student doctors who were nominated. You all have done a wonderful job, and we appreciate the different ways in which you contribute to our class!

After the awards there was a 2013 version of a faculty roast. We were pleasantly entertained by Dr. Routh (played by Jonathan Lind), Dr. Putthoff (played by Jon Moran), Dr. Laura Mohr (played by Lee Bette), and Student Doctor Josh Gazzetta (played by Stephen Cox). Needless to say, the impressions were right on, and we will hopefully have some video of that on the blog soon! Also, thanks to those who were impersonated. They were all great sports.

After dinner and a little bit of socializing, it was time for dancing. Student doctors and Doctors alike took to the floor to show what they had been bottling up for an entire year. All I can say is there was a lot of dancing going on and no one was holding back... no one:)

We hope everyone who came had a great time. If you didn't make it this year, hopefully we will see you next year. Thanks to everyone involved in planning the event. There was a ton of work put into it and there were some students who really stepped up. Thank you again.

Don't forget to upload any pictures to the photobucket account, or check out the ones of you that are on there. HAVE A GREAT SUMMER BREAK!!!

2nd Annual Rocky Run 5K

SOMA's Rocky Run had a huge turnout this year! 112 RVUCOM students, faculty, family members, (and a surprising number of dogs-23 total!) came to support the event! The runners are pictured here awaiting the starting whistle!

And they're off!


Student Doctor Chris Healy destroyed the competition- completing the 5K in just over 17 minutes!!!

After the race RVUCOM's UAAO was available to treat the runners' injuries and aching muscles. Several faculty members from the OPP department came to support the cause and supervise UAAO students.

Here, Dr. Jons- Cox checks Student Doctor Amber Pelzl's diagnosis of a lumbar somatic dysfunction.

Student Doctor and OMM Fellow Jeremy Kenison treats one of the parents that ran in the 5K.

Student Doctor Sara Ponce sought out the help of Student Doctor Joe Krakker when she injured her pelvic muscles while running.

Even a fighting prairie dog showed up to show his school spirit!

Thanks for a great event everyone! See you next year!

Dare to Dream Conference 2010

The day started out with a bang! High school girls from the Denver area attended the Dare to Dream Conference with their mothers for a morning of fun activities, skill building, and empowerment. The conference was geared toward providing young girls with information about higher education and helping the mothers support their daughters as they become successful adults. The morning was full of speakers, career booths featuring various professional women from the community, a scavenger hunt, and mother-daughter crafts!

Student Doctor Kathy Boles, pictured above, carries one of the firearms a local Detective brought in for demonstration.

Student Doctor Summer Grace smiles as she listens to one of the speakers. Summer also facilitated the Conference and directed the activities provided for the mothers.

Student Doctor Jillian Sinopoli volunteered to run one of the Scavenger Hunt stations. Here she shows off the obstacle course the girls attending would navigate while blind-folded!

Student Doctor Jessica Egrid, one of the RVUCOM students that organized the confernce, is pictured here with Jennifer Riddle, a lawyer from the community that donated her time to teach the high school girls about what it would be like to have a career in law.

Throughout the day the girls had the opportunity to play games and talk with both RVUCOM students and women who are already established professionals about how they made their dreams come true!

Another professional from the community, a veteranerian, brought in one her animals for demonstration.

Among the honored guests was the current Miss Colorado! Here she shows Students Amando Jo Cameron and Kathy Boles how to strike a pose!

Thanks to the many great volunteers who made this event happen!!!

RVU Blood Drive!

April 14th RVUCOM held a blood drive in collaboration with the Red Cross. 48 people from the RVU community came to donate- nearly maxing out the Red Cross's daily capacity for donation!Here, students await their interview which screens their eligibility.

Student Doctor Trish Lowery puts on a brave smile while she makes her donation!

Student Doctor Ryan West and a second year, Lauren, make their contribution. Amazingly- each blood donation can save the life of up to three people!!!

Student Doctor Josh Garfein multitasks by looking over a lecture while he gives a pint!

Keep your eyes peeled for emails about up coming blood drives here at RVU!!!

9 Health Fair

April 17, 2010 was the 2nd annual 9Health Fair held at Rocky Vista University.

The 9Health Fair mission is to promote health awareness and to encourage individuals to assume responsibility for their own health, and the fair at RVU did a fantastic job at contributing to that mission.

"I thought it was great that we tripled our numbers from last year. It was great to see so many people from the community and knowing we were helping so many citizens. " said student doctor Jessica Egrid. This year RVU students and doctors helped serve over 350 people from the community.

Many different services were offered. Students helped perform screenings ranging from blood count screenings, blood chemistry screenings, glucose finger stick screenings to stress tests, BMI, vision tests, spinal screenings and more.

It's always great practice and sharpens your skills towards becoming a physician when you volunteer at these fairs, but the opportunity to help people in need is a great feeling and that is what you take away from these experiences.

People in attendance also had the opportunity to meet, one on one, with a physician from the RVU staff. In addition, there were informational booths set up from other healthcare resources in the area for even more learning and service opportunities.

Major props go out to those on the committee who planned the fair. There was definitely a lot of work form students to make this event happen. Everyone who had anything to do with the fair said this year was an awesome success! Way to go RVU! Hopefully we can continue the upward trend and reach out to even more people here in Colorado who need our help.

UAAO's trip to Convocation 2010

In March, RVU's UAAO attended Convocation in Colorado Springs!!! For anyone who doesn't know- UAAO is the OMT club on campus and Convocation is an annual conference for students and professionals to hone their OMT skills and learn new techniques. Check out these photos from their experience! More pictures can be viewed at http://mediafire.com/rvucom-uaao.