So What Is Dan Doing?

Dan has been studying hard since we arrived in Grenada. "Duh" right? Well, I just wanted to show off a bit...

Dan was inducted into the Honor Society, Iota Epsilon Alpha. No small feat since the school doesn't curve the grades at all and you have to have close to all A's to get in. Also, medical school seems to involve a lot of self-teaching, which Dan seems to have gotten the knack of at last.

This weekend, we had a graduation ceremony for the students who studied in Newcastle. The coursework Dan completed through Northumbria University last year qualified him for a Diploma of Higher Education in Medical Sciences (DipHE for short). So some of the faculty from Northumbria came down for the ceremony, including the Vice-Chancellor of Northumbria University (and he brought a Newcastle footballer to boot (he's without a robe on the far left of the picture.

Penny was doing her part to advance Dan's career. She was the cutest kid there. So she acted a bit like a magnet for all his classmates, who had followed along in embryology with additional interest, knowing Penny was coming along. Plus, she got introduced to the Vice-Chancellor as the first kid born into the program in Newcastle. Fiona (I think program director for the Newcastle program) corrected that she's not the first conceived during the program, but was the first born in England. So here's Penny helping Dan network with (left to right) the Dean of Applied Sciences (Prof. Julie Mennell), me, Penny, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Northumbria Prof. Craig Mahoney, and Chancellor of St. George's Dr. Charles Modica. Dr. Modica hung out with us for a bit talking about Penny. Dan was especially thrilled that he mentioned something about doing a special thing at St. George's graduation to recognize Penny. I don't know if he'll remember, but that would be awfully cool.


I so rarely get to picture the actual students, so here are Dan, Celeste, Matt and Hugh, all the folks with significant others in Dan's class while in Newcastle. There's lots more significant others now that we're in Grenada, but we're so spaced out that it's taking a bit to get to know folks here. We're working on it, though.


For those of you who just can't get enough pictures of Penny, I've created a special site with shutterfly.com. I will try to upload pictures as we get them so there's something new at least once a week. If you don't have the address, let me know and I can send it to you.