{"id":5539,"date":"2015-08-17T13:54:37","date_gmt":"2015-08-17T17:54:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/?p=5539"},"modified":"2015-08-17T13:54:37","modified_gmt":"2015-08-17T17:54:37","slug":"alumni-carry-on-sys-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/2015\/alumni-carry-on-sys-legacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumni Carry On Sy\u2019s Legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The experience is nearly as vivid for Dr. Theodore \u201cTed\u201d Gasteyer II, MD, \u201955 today as it was in 1954. He was standing beside a cadaver and across from Dean and Professor Rolf Syvertsen, MD, \u201923 in Dartmouth Medical School\u2019s anatomy lab. Gasteyer had just responded to his professor\u2019s oral test questions, and in seconds, Syvertsen posed yet another, more pointed question: \u201cAre you sure?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a sixth sense about students who were not absolutely, positively, 110% sure about what they were saying or doing,\u201d Gasteyer recalls. \u201cHe looked at me through those little half-glasses perched on his nose \u2013 right in the eye \u2013 and repeated: \u2018Are you sure?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

As a first-year medical student, Gasteyer admits that he was 100% sure of nothing. But he understood the lesson that Syvertsen was conveying. Physicians have to make a lot of decisions, and if they\u2019ve researched a problem well, they should be confident in those decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the kind of thing that if you were to latch on and take it to heart, you would carry it with you, and it would have a big impact on your career,\u201d Gasteyer adds. \u201cIt certainly did for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rolf
Rolf Syvertsen, MD, \u201923, Dartmouth Medical School dean from 1945-1960.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Between 1923 and 1960, hundreds of medical students knew Syvertsen as a professor of anatomy, administrator, dean, and perhaps most critically, their personal advocate and mentor. Known as \u201cSy\u2019s Boys,\u201d these young men were educated and trained as doctors before the advent of coeducation, and they still draw from a wellspring of stories that reveal the doctor\u2019s gruff kindliness and his unconventional teaching methods, as well as his uncommon devotion to each and every student.<\/p>\n

That legacy recently inspired Gasteyer and his classmate, Dr. John Moran, to each make generous gifts to the Rolf C. Syvertsen Memorial Fund. The endowed fund, established in 1985 by alumni donations, celebrates the life and legacy of its namesake. It provides more than $100,000 each year in financial aid to students in need. Additionally, 10% of the fund\u2019s income supports the Syvertsen Scholars and Fellows Program, which honors fourth-year students who exemplify the values that Syvertsen stood for and seeks to perpetuate his enduring influence on the medical school\u2019s cultural framework.<\/p>\n

The 2014-15 Syvertsen Fellow, Fadzai Chinyengtere, PhD\u201913, MD\u201915, describes her award as a \u201cgodsend\u201d that helped with her travel expenses for residency interviews.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am eternally grateful to our alumni for their gifts,\u201d\u00a0Chinyengtere says.<\/p>\n

Ilya Bendich, MD,\u201915, who was named a Syvertsen Scholar for 2014-15, calls the award the \u201cgreatest honor of his medical school years.\u201d He appreciates that the scholarship recognizes students\u2019 academic and extracurricular achievements, as well their commitment to strengthening communities and making a positive difference in the world through their medical practices. Like Chinyengtere, Bendich\u2019s financial award extended his opportunities for residency interviews.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a competitive specialty like orthopaedic surgery, I found that attending two more interviews made me feel significantly more confident that I would match successfully,\u201d Bendich adds.<\/p>\n

Dr. Syvertsen was a rigorous and uncompromising teacher, who modeled for students his twin passions for medicine and lifelong learning. He also cultivated a strong sense of community, good citizenship, and compassion for humanity \u2013 and in particular, for one\u2019s patients. His influence on generations of doctors was profound and continues to inspire alumni, like Gasteyer and Moran, to support scholarships in his name, carrying on the Syvertsen legacy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fifty-five years after he retired as dean of the medical school, Rolf C. Syvertsen, MD, is still remembered by alumni as a legendary professor and for many, their personal advocate and mentor. Two alumni recently made generous gifts to the memorial fund named in Syvertsen\u2019s honor, which supports scholarships and a special scholars program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":5540,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-news","author-24"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/08\/awards_syvertsen_10172014-129.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4r3h1-1rl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5539"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5546,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5539\/revisions\/5546"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}