“I had no parents and no money. There was not much in the way of financial aid available, and tuition was higher than I could afford.”
That was the reality that Fred Kohanna, MD ’78 was facing as a 22-year old young man on the verge of entering his first year at GW’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
It was Fred Kohanna’s lifelong dream to become a doctor, but tuition wasn’t the only hurdle Fred Kohanna had to overcome. His father passed away when he was 13 years old, and he lost his mother just three days before he started his freshman year at Columbia University.
“I struggled to settle down and get back on my feet emotionally that first year of college,” he remembers. “It was a difficult time and my academics suffered. Knowing how competitive medical school admissions were, I knew I had to refocus and commit myself to following my dream.”
Few medical schools seemed willing to look beyond the academic repercussions of that first year, but that all changed the day Dr. Kohanna came to George Washington for an admissions interview and met Dr. Robert I. Keimowitz, professor emeritus and former assistant dean of admissions for GW’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS).
“A lot of medical schools didn’t cut me any slack for what had gone in my life, but when I came to GW Dr. Keimowitz took my personal circumstances into consideration,” says Dr. Kohanna. “He took time in the interview to get to know me as a person, not just an applicant. I will always be appreciative of that consideration.”
Dr. Kohanna was thrilled when he was accepted into SMHS – the only school that offered him admission – but the financial cost of pursuing his dream seemed as if it might be too high to overcome. He says that the school recognized his need but didn’t have the financial aid funds available to help him at that time. After an exhaustive search, he found a DC philanthropist who was willing to help pay for the cost of medical school on the condition that Dr. Kohanna remained in good standing.
Now a successful physician with nearly 25 years’ experience in surgery, emergency medicine, and occupational and environmental medicine, Dr. Kohanna credits the training he received at SMHS for positioning him to succeed.
“My education and training at GW left me better prepared than a lot of my peers when I finished school,” he says. “I was able to perform procedures and evaluate patients at a level that not everyone could match. GW is still very well respected among my peers today, and I’m very proud to tell people that the George Washington University is where I went to medical school.”
Dr. Kohanna also acknowledges the role financial aid played in his life and has subsequently supported GW and the School of Medicine and Health Sciences with a gift every year for the past 30 years. He plans to continue to support the school, eventually increasing his giving once his children have graduated college.
“I will always be extremely grateful to GW for what they provided me in terms of my education and my career as a physician,” adds Dr. Kohanna. “Making these annual gifts is my way of repaying a debt of gratitude. I’m not a big contributor, but a consistent one, and I think that commitment to support is an important one.”
He understands the importance of financial aid to students and believes that efforts like the GW Power & Promise Fund for Student Aid – created in 2009 by GW President Steven Knapp – is important to ensuring students at GW can afford a world-class education.
“I wouldn’t be where I am today without the help of those special individuals who believed and took a chance on me,” says Dr. Kohanna. “It’s my hope that future GW students receive that same kind of support during their time at George Washington.”
For information on how you can support the GW Power & Promise Fund for Student Aid, contact Sumana Chatterjee at schatter@gwu.edu or 202-994-6724.
