Farzand Syed recom letthead 30sep11 signed
2
Dartmouth Medical School Department of Microbiology and Immunology Borwell Building One Medical Center Drive Lebanon, NI-I 03756-0001 Tel: (603) 650-4919 Fax: (603) 650-6223 Vail Building Hanover, NH 03755-3842 'rei: (603) 650-1613 Fax:(603)650-1318 September 29, 2011 To the Admissions Committee for Dartmouth Medical School: I wish to support Farzand A. Syed's application to Dartmouth Medical School for the MD/PhD program. Ido not personally know Mr. Syed, but he has been a participant in the Harvard spin- off Biomedical Science Careers Program (BSCP) since 1994, and Ican speak to that. There are over 8,400 students, student advisors, teachers, guidance counselors, administrators and community organizers who are part of the BSCP network. Initiatives include the biennial BSCP conference, the Skills Workshops Program, the Career Development Series Conferences, the New England Resource Directory, and HOPE Scholarships (www.bscp.org/initiatives.asp). I have been involved with BSCP from its inception (1991-1992) as a mentor representing OMS, as requested by Bill Green when he was Director of the Immunology Program at Dartmouth. Our goal was to have more diversity in our application pools at Dartmouth in order to qualify for NIH funding of large projects. BSCP has since developed, under Dr. Joan Reede's capable guidance and vision - she is now Harvard Medical School's Dean for Diversity and Community Partnership, into a premier diversity-enabling organization for students of every race/ethnicity and gender, and at all levels from high school to faculty. Indeed, BSCP has taken the art of mentoring to a whole new level, where an intricate web of novel and enabling methods allows mentors tofocus on individuals and help them strategically develop their talents. It is out of this BSCP cauldron that Farzand Syed comes. He is originally from Pakistan, and in 1989 his father brought him at age 15 to the US to get a better education. (Farzand entered Brighton High, Brighton, MA, in loth grade. His father was an assistant professor of math in Pakistan, and a Lecturer of math at Northeastern University for over 10 years.) Farzand obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology in addition to a Master of Arts in Biotechnology in a dual degree program at BU, both in 1998. Concurrently, he was a Research Assistant at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Institutes of Medicine from 1996- 1998 studying in a post baccalaureate program with Dr. Chaker Adra, who at that time was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He has 3 publications from his research with Dr. Adra, two in the journal Genomics and one in the journal Clinical Genetics, all of good quality. My interviews with Mr. Syed indicate he had a substantive role in these projects, all of which focused on disease related genes. In 1998, Mr. Syed was invited to BSCP's Evening of Hope as aguest of the President and CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation, Susan P. Pauker, MD, whom he had first met some years earlier. Dr. Pauker had run asummer enrichment program at Harvard University called the IMAGE Program (Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation). She had arranged medical observershi ps for him between 1991 and 1995 in general, vascular and orthopedics surgery, and other specialties (among other clinical specialties) at both Children's Hospital Boston and Mount
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Transcript of Farzand Syed recom letthead 30sep11 signed
Dartmouth Medical School
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Borwell BuildingOne Medical Center DriveLebanon, NI-I 03756-0001Tel: (603) 650-4919Fax: (603) 650-6223
Vail BuildingHanover, N H 03755-3842'rei: (603) 650-1613Fax: (603)650-1318
September 29, 2011
To the Admissions Committee for Dartmouth Medical School:
I wish to support Farzand A. Syed's application to Dartmouth Medical School for the MD/PhDprogram. I do not personally know Mr. Syed, but he has been a participant in the Harvard spin-off Biomedical Science Careers Program (BSCP) since 1994, and I can speak to that. There areover 8,400 students, student advisors, teachers, guidance counselors, administrators andcommunity organizers who are part of the BSCP network. Initiatives include the biennial BSCPconference, the Skills Workshops Program, the Career Development Series Conferences, theNew England Resource Directory, and HOPE Scholarships (www.bscp.org/initiatives.asp). Ihave been involved with BSCP from its inception (1991-1992) as a mentor representing OMS, asrequested by Bill Green when he was Director of the Immunology Program at Dartmouth. Ourgoal was to have more diversity in our application pools at Dartmouth in order to qualify for NIHfunding of large projects. BSCP has since developed, under Dr. Joan Reede's capable guidanceand vision - she is now Harvard Medical School's Dean for Diversity and CommunityPartnership, into a premier diversity-enabling organization for students of every race/ethnicityand gender, and at all levels from high school to faculty. Indeed, BSCP has taken the art ofmentoring to a whole new level, where an intricate web of novel and enabling methods allowsmentors to focus on individuals and help them strategically develop their talents.
It is out of this BSCP cauldron that Farzand Syed comes. He is originally from Pakistan, and in1989 his father brought him at age 15 to the US to get a better education. (Farzand enteredBrighton High, Brighton, MA, in loth grade. His father was an assistant professor of math inPakistan, and a Lecturer of math at Northeastern University for over 10 years.) Farzand obtaineda Bachelor of Arts in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology in addition to a Master of Arts inBiotechnology in a dual degree program at BU, both in 1998. Concurrently, he was a ResearchAssistant at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Institutes of Medicine from 1996-1998 studying in a post baccalaureate program with Dr. Chaker Adra, who at that time was anAssistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He has 3 publications from hisresearch with Dr. Adra, two in the journal Genomics and one in the journal Clinical Genetics, allof good quality. My interviews with Mr. Syed indicate he had a substantive role in theseprojects, all of which focused on disease related genes.
In 1998, Mr. Syed was invited to BSCP's Evening of Hope as a guest of the President and CEOof Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation, Susan P. Pauker, MD, whom he had first met someyears earlier. Dr. Pauker had run a summer enrichment program at Harvard University called theIMAGE Program (Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation). She had arranged medicalobservershi ps for him between 1991 and 1995 in general, vascular and orthopedics surgery, andother specialties (among other clinical specialties) at both Children's Hospital Boston and Mount
2Auburn Hospital. Farzand has a strong interest in Dartmouth, having initially been introducedto OMS through one of his friends from high school, Khang Nguyen, a DMS alumnus (MD,2000).
I understand that Mr. Syed is supplying OMS with letters of recommendation from the Presidentand Chair of BSCP, Joan Y. Reede, MD, MPH, MBA, and from Lise Kaye, Executive Directorof BSCP. He has met (through BSCP's Evening of Hope) William Silen, MD, Dean of FacultyDevelopment Affairs at Harvard Medical School who, after interviewing him and looking at hisofficial transcript, encouraged him to apply to HMS in 1998. Farzand did not apply right afterhis masters program to medical school because of financial reasons. He is married and has twochildren 4 and 5 years old.
Farzand's future goals are to go into Transplant Surgery with specialization in liver, pancreasand kidney transplantation. His stated target for the future is to work for the medicallyunderserved community.
Sincerely,
Hillary D. White, [email protected] Professor (Neuroendocrine Immunology)Department of Microbiology & ImmunologyDartmouth Medical SchoolWhite Mountain Pharma (Dartmouth spin-off), CSO
