Dartmouth Medical School Societies

A message from Joseph O'Donnell, Senior Advising Dean:

I wanted to let you all know some exciting news. We will be introducing three societies at DMS. These will be named for famous DMS faculty: the William A. Mosenthal Society, headed by Bill Boyle; the E. Lucile Smith Society, headed by Jim Bell; and the S. Marsh Tenney Society, which I will head.

The Societies have been created for five primary reasons:

  1. To give each student individual attention in his/her journey to becoming a physician
  2. To connect students with mentors and "go to" people to help them along the way
  3. To build a healthy community at DMS
  4. To help students benefit from the wisdom of the classes ahead of them
  5. To build relationships not only between students, but also between students and faculty, students and administration, students and alumni, etc.

We will use the Societies to improve the infrastructure to connect students with research, service, international, and other opportunities. We also expect the Societies will provide more opportunities for career development and mentoring and will address issues of professionalism, understanding different cultures, and other topics.

Each Society will contain students from all four years, students doing combined degrees, and students who are away from the curriculum on leave. Each will elect student governance and try to effectively involve interested faculty and alumni. We hope to work to create an even more healthy and successful educational environment at DMS, built on respect, collaboration, and civility.

I'd really appreciate it if you could contact me with any advice you have on building this program to be as successful as possible.

Thanks!

Joe O'Donnell
July 8, 2005