Residency Graduation

On June 16, we celebrated Brandon's graduation from the Via Christi Family Medicine Residency program at Botanica in Wichita. Bibi & Babu and Grandma & Grandpa made the trip to celebrate with us.

We did it!! Seven years of school, plus three years of residency, and you are ready to begin your practice. I am so proud of all you have accomplished Brandon. What a fun journey this has been.

With Grandma and Grandpa

With Bibi and Babu

Brandon wanted the kids to be at the graduation, but the ceremony is notoriously long -- so we had the genius idea to bring them along, so we could get pictures of everyone all dressed up, then have a sitter pick them up and take them home! She fed them dinner and got everyone to bed on time.

 

The format of the ceremony allowed for each resident to share some reflections on their time in residency. It is nice to hear from everyone...but as you can imagine, with a program this large (18 residents per class), this can make for a long ceremony. The program director did a great job of keeping things moving and limited every resident to three minutes. He also decided to have the residents go in reverse-alphabetical order -- which means Brandon was the very last to go! I enjoyed hearing his reflections on the past three years and looking ahead to what comes next.

VCFM class of 2017
(amazingly, unintentionally, coordinated, almost all wearing blue or grey!)

The four chiefs for the class of 2017
Sam Porter, Mike Kalkhoff, John Schantzen, and Brandon

Of course, the graduation ceremony was sort of a "false" ending. Technically, residency programs begin July 1 and end June 30, though many people are essentially finished with their responsibilities after graduation. Brandon, however, finished his residency on OB service, which means he had to work all the way through June 30, including working the night shift for his final week!