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Greetings everyone:
Many of you are aware of one way in which the tragic Haiti earthquake hit especially close to our home here at WesternU. Daniel Kloos, who was expected to join our College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific this August as a member of the Class of 2014, was killed in the January 12 earthquake that has so far claimed more than 200,000 lives.
Daniel was visiting his sister, a volunteer at a Haitian orphanage, when the quake struck. His body was found in the rubble some time later; his sister, whose hands and arms were crushed by debris, is out of the hospital and undergoing physical therapy to restore her mobility. She is expected to regain the use of her hands and arms.
I hope you will join me in sending your kind thoughts and prayers to the Kloos family, just as Im certain we all are keeping Haitis people in our thoughts and are doing our best to support the Haitian relief effort, either through our own initiative or by supporting some of the campus fund-raisers that have taken place the past few weeks.
More broadly, though, I believe the massive international humanitarian effort underway to heal Haitis people and help rebuild the country underscores the importance of what we do here at Western University of Health Sciences. Like Daniel Kloos, all of us have one overarching goal: to improve the lives of our fellows. We do this by being excellent in our medical science and research, and by living the founding philosophy of this institution: humanism and compassionate care for all.
As the Haitian earthquake and countless other tragedies worldwide show, the need for medical excellence and humanistic care never ends. Our philosophy and skills never go out of style; indeed, they become more critical with each passing day.
I know that all of you share the sense of social and community responsibility that comes with the careers we have chosen, and can appreciate how serving our fellows is a privilege of the highest order. As we go about our work and our studies each day, I hope you remember that your commitment to the health sciences will yield a lifetime of profound meaning and limitless worth.
As always, I welcome your feedback on this topic and any others as we discuss WesternUs Benchmarks of Value. Please e-mail me with your thoughts at
[email protected]. I also invite you to visit the Presidents Blog, which includes all Messages from the President on this topic and has a section where you can offer feedback. The blog can be found at
www.westernu.edu/president-blog.
Thanks,
cid:
[email protected]
Philip Pumerantz, PhD
President
Western University of Health Sciences
309 E. Second Street
Pomona, CA 91766
ph: 909/469-5200
fax: 909/620-5456
www.westernu.edu
