New Orleans Transfer Student Admitted to Medical School
Adam Protos was in the third week of the Anatomy Certification Program at Tulane University in August 2005. He loved his new graduate program and "was never so happy to get up for an 8:00 a.m. class" in his life. Then Hurricane Katrina struck. Adam felt grateful to have escaped with body and soul intact, but his plans to complete his certificate in a year and then matriculate to medical school seemed to have been swept away.
Adam is one of the hundreds of New Orleans students to whom Loyola University Chicago gave shelter from the storm in the Fall of 2005. Here, he joined the Master of Arts in Medical Sciences Program, a graduate degree for students who are interested in attending medical school and seek an opportunity to enhance their credentials in the sciences. Jumping into the program after the semester had begun and still trying to locate his belongings, Adam fought his way through a tough graduate curriculum with the help of family and friends and an enormous Great Dane that he affectionately calls "the canine rug". During that first semester, Tulane announced the cancellation of the Anatomy Certification Program for the academic year. While many students were traveling back to New Orleans, Adam didn't have a program to return to. With the help of the Graduate School and Graduate and Professional Enrollment Management, Adam enrolled as a degree-seeking Loyola student. He came to love Chicago, and will receive his M.A. on May 18, 2006.
In February, he was storm-struck again, but this time by wonderful news: he received his first admission to medical school for the fall of 2006. Still awaiting decisions from other medical schools, Adam has not yet decided on his immediate future, but the long-term plan is clear: he will be a doctor, and Loyola University Chicago will always have his friendship.
