Ariana de Gennaro

The class of 2025 had an untraditional start to medical school, with a masked white-coat ceremony and remote classes. 

After commencement, graduates will either enter residency programs or pursue alternative paths centered around their interests. Seniors who spoke with the News said they will remember Yale’s School of Medicine for its collaborative environment, empowerment of students and supportive atmosphere. 

According to Dean Nancy Brown, at the time of the seniors’ white coat ceremony, the 104 students — 14 of whom were first generation college graduates — were selected from a pool of 6,200 applicants, representing 19 different countries and 56 different colleges and universities.

“Yale is a unique medical school in the sense that we’ve created a particular culture that fosters collaboration rather than competition, and so it’s kind of self selects for people who already buy into this philosophy of congeniality, this philosophy of we’re building together, nobody’s really competing with each other,” Brian Fleischer ’25 said.

Fleischer’s start at the School of Medicine was different from other students. In 2020, his first year studying at Yale, he was in Ghana, and could not fly out of the country to join his classmates, though the classes were virtual.

When he did eventually join his cohort, the deans at the School of Medicine organized a white-coat ceremony just for him, while some of his classmates, family and friends joined virtually. 

“For me, that was quite symbolic because I thought it was a good gesture and was a grand one for me — the school going out of its way to help allow me to participate in such an age-old ritual for medical students,” Fleischer told the News. “That evening, my classmates gathered around, made dinner, invited me over, and we were able to feast, and I felt like that was a great, very warm and kind way to welcome me into the school.” 

For Fleischer, medical school brought some personal challenges. He recalls feeling isolated during the pandemic when he was lacking confidence in his abilities as a student, but a conversation with one of his close classmates showed him that he had a support system of peers around him willing to struggle through the fast-paced curriculum of medical school together.

When asked what he would tell his first-year self, Fleischer said, “Brian, you will be a great physician. You will do very well. You just need to give yourself grace and trust in the process.”

For Haleigh Larson ’18 MED ‘25, Yale has felt like a home for her since she left high school. 

“Yale is really special, and for me, it’s where I became an adult,” Larson said. “I came here when I was 17 years old, and I’ll be leaving as a 29 year old, so I’ve spent arguably the most formative years of my life in this institution.” 

Graduating Yale College in 2018 with a degree in Molecular Biology and Biophysics, Larson spent two years in Seattle working on genetic tech before starting her studies at the School of Medicine. Looking to the future, she plans on working in women’s health policy with the United Nations before applying for residency programs in internal medicine or cardiology. 

Larson’s main interest lies in ischemic heart disease in women, and her passion for women’s health research goes back to her undergraduate years at Yale, when she worked under the mentorship of Carolyn M. Mazure, the founder of Women’s Health Research at Yale. 

Looking back on her years at the School of Medicine, Larson recalls a specific moment during her cardiothoracic surgery rotation with Dr. Prashanth Vallabhajosyula that stands out from the rest. The team was down an individual before an eight-hour aortic arch repair and Haleigh remembers getting a text in the team group chat asking if she would be at the surgery to help.

“At Yale, I feel like I’ve been incredibly involved in all my rotations, and one of the things I like about Yale is as much as you’re willing to step up, they’ll give you the opportunity to do it,” Larson said. 

Larson emphasized that her path was not free from mistakes, but that she always had a strong support system around her to help her along the way. 

The community at the School of Medicine is what Nishita Pondugula MED ‘25 will miss most about her time at Yale. 

“I think part of what made YSM feel like a great community was the Yale system which offered flexibility in our curriculum and provided formative feedback and support to each student to learn the way they learn best and seek out para-curricular interests,” Pondugula wrote. 

Beginning medical school in 2020 at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pondugula remembers her first year in medical school being a big transition. Given the challenges of living during the pandemic, Pondugula wishes that she could have had the opportunity to take fuller advantage of Yale University, the medical school campus and New Haven earlier on in her education. 

Nevertheless, Pondugula believes she was able to make the most of her time despite the global circumstances impacting her class. 

Next year, Pondugula will head off to Durham, NC to begin her obstetrics and gynecology residency at Duke school of medicine, with hopes of becoming an OB GYN and a faculty member in academic medicine. In the coming years, she sees herself continuing clinical practice, research and teaching, with a focus on reproductive and health justice and bioethics. 

“In this work, I hope to center the voices of my most vulnerable patients and advocate to change systems to improve their health and wellbeing,” Pondugula wrote to the News. 

The School of Medicine was founded in 1810.