Jennifer Eder

Nobel laureates Aaron Ciechanover, M.D., Ph.D., and Ferid Murad, M.D., Ph.D., had a number of lessons to offer George Washington University students earlier this week.

Lauren Finely’s iPhone alarm buzzes. Finely, a 26-year-old first-year medical resident, slips on baby blue scrubs, grabs some fruit, and makes a coffee-to-go for her 15-minute commute to GW Hospital, where a long day is about to begin.

Kathryn Boling was not the conventional medical student. At 53 years old, she has raised two daughters, been through a divorce, had a 30-year career, and moved across the country to pursue her “life’s dream.”

The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) welcomed 600 new students on Saturday. Some held human body parts in the gross anatomy lab. Some learned how to suture. And others were shown how to deliver a baby.