A good thing to do, and a great time to do it
Long before Pamela Swearingen, M78, became a pediatrician, Tufts University School of Medicine (TUSM) was interwoven in her home and family. Her mother, a general practitioner, and father, a pediatrician, were both TUSM graduates, and their practices were attached to the house where they raised their five children. The family includes numerous alumni of the medical school and Tufts University, and even a former acting Tufts president, William Leslie Hooper (1912-14).
“I always assumed that I would go into medicine, too,” says Swearingen, who retired in 2018 after three decades in pediatrics. Equally natural was her choice to support Tufts with a Reunion Term Scholarship in honor of her parents, the Pamela Gleason Swearingen, M.D., M78, and Charles W. Swearingen, M.D., Term Scholarship, and in celebration of her own 45th reunion. “It was a good thing to do, and a great time to do it.” Reunion Term Scholarships are a special giving opportunity for alumni celebrating reunions who want to support to medical students with financial need.
“One of the benefits of practicing for many years,” says Swearingen, “is that I was able to enjoy seeing my patients grow, and even seeing their children.” Through her scholarship (inspired, in part, by a scholarship her parents established at Tufts) she hopes to ease recipients’ financial burden and help them follow their dreams. “I hope some of the recipients might be interested in going into primary care,” says Swearingen, “which is one of the specialties most needed in medicine today.”
“My pathway to medicine started the day I was born,” says David Cooper, M73, an endocrinologist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Cooper’s mother wanted both of her sons to become doctors and with her persistent encouragement, they did. At Tufts and during his fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital, Cooper was mentored by several leading lights in endocrinology and thyroidology, all Tufts graduates and faculty members.
“It was through those role models that I became an academic endocrinologist,” says Cooper. “I wanted to pattern my career along similar lines, to teach, mentor endocrinology fellows, do research, and see patients.” Career highlights for Cooper include serving as an editor of JAMA, and holding several leadership roles in his field. “Those contributions have made my career very satisfying.”
Like the dedicated investigator he is, Cooper “did some research” as he considered ways to give back on the occasion of his 50th Reunion. “The cost of medical school has increased about ten-fold since I was a medical student,” says Cooper, and many students graduate with significant debt. By creating the David S. Cooper, M.D., and Ellen S. Cooper, J.D., Scholarship, Cooper and his wife, Ellen, hope to reduce debt burdens for recipients, and offer them as much freedom as possible in their selection of a specialty. Just as Tufts alumni helped Cooper find his way to a great career in medicine, he’s glad to do the same for others, as the Class of 1973 marks their 50th Reunion. “Ellen and I are really happy to be able to make this gift.”
To learn how you can celebrate your Reunion with this unique giving opportunity, visit https://go.tufts.edu/reuniontermscholarship or contact Lindsay Nordstrom at lindsay.nordstrom@tufts.edu or 617-636-0461.