Celebrating Honors Day 2025

Fourth-year medical students and faculty members were recognized for academic and clinical excellence during Feinberg’s Honors Day, held on May 16 in the Hughes Auditorium.

“I am extremely grateful to be honored at this year’s Honors Day ceremony. As a child, I dreamed of becoming the first doctor in my family and can now proudly say that I have achieved this dream. All of my hard work, determination and sacrifices have paid off,” said fourth-year medical student Danielle Millan, who received the Phi Rho Sigma Dennis Award for outstanding performance in junior-year clerkships.

“Medical school has been filled with late nights in the library, reading up on new literature and guidelines and diverse encounters with a wide variety of patients. But most importantly, the last four years have solidified my place in the medical field, alongside the lifelong friends I have made and the incredible attendings, residents, nurses, social workers, pharmacists, and dietitians I have had the pleasure of working with,” said Millan, who after graduation will begin her residency in Neurology at McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University.

Marianne Green, MD, the Raymond H. Curry, MD, Professor of Medical Education, welcomed faculty, graduating medical students and their families to this year’s Honors Day ceremony.

“We began this tradition in 2011 on the day before graduation as a way to publicly honor some of our fourth-year students for their leadership, extracurricular accomplishments, service and commitment to the school, and their achievement of excellence in clinical clerkships over the past several years,” Green said. “These awards represent excellence above and beyond expectations. If you embrace the attitudes and skills that got you here today, I know that recognition and excellence will accompany you throughout your career.”

Fourth-year medical student Stephen Freeman said that being recognized with the Frederick and Harriett Stenn Award for Humanism in Medicine is a reminder to take the lessons him and his peers have learned at Feinberg and use them to help us pursue more patient and human-centered care in residency and beyond.

“Building a panel of patients in my ECMH clinic and getting to be a part of their team over the course of four years has been extremely special. The ECMH program has given me a unique chance to be with some of the same patients as we celebrate meeting health goals in clinic as well as comforting them and their families when they are admitted in the ICU. Building deep relationships these patients and their families has been one of the best learning experiences during my medical school career and was extremely important in my path to pursuing family medicine,” said Freeman, who after graduation will begin his family medicine residency at the University of Pennsylvania in the fall.

Faculty awards were also presented to four Feinberg faculty members for outstanding teaching in the classroom and clinic.

Angelique Dueñas, PhD, MS, assistant Professor of Medical Education, was selected by graduating medical students as this year’s Harry N. Beaty Honors Day Speaker.

During her speech, Dueñas encouraged this year’s student awardees the importance of the relationships they’ve built with their peers and patients, to continue to forge new relationships as they embark on the next phase of their medical careers, and to embrace variation as the norm.

“There will be countless variations of perspective that you have to navigate and now as the doctor in the room and no longer the student, people will look to you on how to lead through these challenges in these moments. I hope that you remember that variations are the norm, part of the privilege and sometimes the pain of being human. Remember your values and all you have learned here, particularly from the perspective of health equity and remember your commitment to considering health for all people,” Dueñas said.

Dueñas also encouraged students to remain curious and to commit to being a lifelong learner in medicine.

“The career of a physician calls upon you to be a lifelong learner, and I hope that you always embrace this. You’ll have so many ‘whys’ in your career,” Dueñas said. “Stay curious and never stop questioning and learning.”

George H. Joost Teaching Awards

Student Awards                                            

• Diane B. Wayne, MD, Award: Hannah Miriam Green, for outstanding performance in the junior medicine clerkship                                                    
• John T. Clarke, MD, Award: Siva Priya Sreedhar, for an outstanding graduating student pursuing a career in internal medicine.                                                         
• Eugene Bauer, MD, Award for Excellence in Dermatology: Lauren Chrisman, for the best overall performance in dermatology by a graduating medical student pursuing a career in dermatology.
• Beatrice Tucker, MD, Award in Obstetrics and Gynecology: Lilian Nguyen Bui, in recognition of outstanding commitment, service, and advocacy in the field of women’s health.
• James Kozlowski Award for Excellence in Urology: Meera Bhanu Ganesh, presented to a graduating student with the most outstanding performance in urology.
• Paul C. Bucy Medical Student Award: Shreya Budhiraja, for outstanding contributions by a graduating student in the field of neurological surgery.
• Frederick and Harriett Stenn Award for Humanism in Medicine: Stephen Freeman, nominated by a classmate for demonstration of humanism and compassion in the practice of medicine.
• Neil Stone Award for Professionalism and Compassion in Medicine: Michelle Lu and Gabriel Ortiz Celemin, nominated by a clerkship director in recognition of commitment to professionalism and compassion in medicine.
• Kenneth M. Viste, Jr., ’66 MD, Student Service Recognition Award: Bettina Cheung, in recognition of outstanding service and contribution to Feinberg School of Medicine.
• Daniel Hale Williams Leadership Award: Ateh Elizabeth Fonteh, in recognition of a graduating student who excelled in promoting the tenets of health equity at Feinberg School of Medicine.
• Phi Rho Sigma Dennis Award: Hannah Miriam Green, Paul Kinkopf and Danielle Millan, for outstanding performance in junior year clerkships.
• Louis G. Keith, MD, PhD, Award in Obstetrics and Gynecology: Emily Pinheiro, in recognition of clinical and academic excellence in the field of obstetrics and gynecology.
• Henry B. Betts, MD, Award for Excellence in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation: Gabriel Ortiz Celemin, for best performance during the physical medicine and rehabilitation medical student clerkship rotation.
• Stephen M. Stahl Award for Excellence in Psychiatry: Sam Blizzard, for an outstanding graduating student in psychiatry.
• Edward A. Brunner Medical Student Award in Anesthesiology: Rachelle Liu, in recognition of the highest level of academic excellence demonstrated by a graduating student pursuing a career in anesthesiology.
• Leon Epstein, MD, Award of Excellence in Child Neurology: Mo Kinsinger, for a graduating student who demonstrated excellence in neurology during the third-year clerkship as well as selective experiences in child neurology.
• Sam Ung Ho, MD, Award for Excellence in Neurology: Michael Raymond Drumm, for a graduating student who demonstrated excellence in neurology during the third-year clerkship as well as the selective experiences in neurology.
• Jan Reddy Excellence in Pathology Award: Michael Sanjay Fernandopulle, for excellent effort and learning on the pathology elective rotation.
• Gayle E. Woloschak Medical Student Award for Excellence in Radiation Oncology: Richard Duan, for excellence in radiation oncology.
• James Thomas Case Radiology Award: Elizabeth Kathryn Weiss, for best overall performance in radiology by a graduating student pursuing a career in radiology.
• Clare Giegerich Award for Outstanding Promise in Orthopaedic Surgery: Manasa Sai Pagadala, awarded to a graduating student who demonstrated outstanding performance in the field of orthopaedic surgery.
• James A. Stockman III Award for Excellence in Pediatrics and Child Health: Alan Poe, for outstanding performance in the pediatric clerkship and a passion for advancing the care of children through advocacy, education, and research.
• John P. Phair Award: Bettina Cheung, awarded to a graduating student who excelled on the infectious disease rotation in both the intellectual and human side of medicine.
• Julius Conn, Jr., MD, Award: Alec Nicolas Angelo Jotte, for outstanding performance in the surgery clerkship.
• Lee M. Jampol, MD, Award: Bonnie Huang, for outstanding achievement by a graduating student in ophthalmology, in clinical care and vision science research.
• Martin Lipsky Award for Excellence in Family Medicine: Erick Masias, named for the inaugural chair of Family and Community Medicine and granted to a graduating student entering a family medicine residency who most exemplifies the characteristics of altruism, compassion, and intellectual curiosity.
• Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Excellence in Emergency Medicine Award: Scott Andrew Wu, awarded to a graduating student who has demonstrated excellence in the specialty of emergency medicine.
• Harold J. Pelzer, MD, Award: David Fei-Zhang, awarded to a graduating student for outstanding achievement on the otolaryngology rotation.