The USF Health Morsani College of Medicine’s new downtown Tampa building opened its doors this month. But the state-of-the-art facilities and beautiful views of Tampa Bay weren’t the only reasons to celebrate.

The new building includes dedicated space for each of the school’s nine Collegia, groups made up of students at all stages of training that provide mentoring and personal support throughout their medical school careers.

A USF Health medical student studies in the Farmer collegia recently in the new Morsani College of Medicine and Heart Institute in downtown Tampa. This is the first time that medical students have had a dedicated space for their collegia.

There are a lot of pieces that are outside the classroom, pieces that are designed to help them (medical students) evolve into doctors who can take care of themselves, each other and patients” said Kira Zwygart, MD, the associate dean of the USF Health’s Office of Student Affairs and the College of Medicine Family Medicine.

This is the first time each Collegium has its own dedicated space since USF instituted the program in April 2012.

“A physical space will help foster the sense of community for each Collegia,” said Dr. Zwygart.

A USF Health medical student decorates a window in the Osler Collegia in January 2020.

Milind Kothari, DO, FAAN, is associate dean of the Collegia Program. He said that most schools that have similar learning communities feel the lack of dedicated space.

The decorated logo of the Hippocrates collegia. 

By having dedicated space in the new building “we are at the forefront among most schools because we have prime real estate dedicated to collegia,” Dr. Kothari said.

“The concept is to a create a little home within a bigger home feeling” Dr. Kothari continued.

According to Dr. Kothari, the main goals for Collegia is to provide medical students:

• Professional role models and long-term personal relationships among their peers
• A sense of community
• Career planning guidance
• Robust strategies for taking care of their physical and emotional health

USF Health medical students decorated the Paracelsus Collegia in January 2020.

A dedicated space helps alleviate any disconnect students of varying years may experience, Dr. Kothari said. For example, third- and fourth-year students can have an easier time building relationships with the first- and second-year medical students if they’re all meeting, studying and mentoring in the same place.

“The chance meeting opportunities will increase” added Dr. Zwygart.

Medical school leaders said students are pleased to have a dedicated space for their Collegia.

“This has generated the most excitement about Collegia,” Dr. Zwygart said. “The idea of having their own space in the new building” she added.

To commemorate entering their new spaces, the medical students of each Collegium held a decorating contest during orientation earlier this month.

A combination of faculty from student affairs and the advisors for each Collegium judged the decorating job done on each room, with Farmer being the highest-rated Collegium.

USF Health medical students painted an anchor in the Osler Collegia in January 2020.

Here is how the nine Collegium ranked:

1^st: Farmer (Light blue)

2^nd: Bourne (orange)

3^rd: Koch (pink)

4^th: Galen (purple)

5^th: Paracelsus (green)

6^th: Lower (red)

7^th: Hippocrates (black)

8^th: Osler (dark blue)

9^th: Debakey (yellow)

In the Bourne Collegia, a Phoenix is illuminated.

Video, photos and article by Allison Long

More than 400 students from the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine gathered Feb. 8 at the University of South Florida’s outdoor basketball courts to represent their collegias in the first Collegia Olympics.

The goal of the collegias is to promote peer and professional mentoring to medical students to help them navigate the world of medicine more efficiently and effectively throughout medical school and beyond.

The nine collegia chairs hold smoke bombs representing the colors of their collegia crests to launch the first Collegia Olympics.

The nine collegia teams participated in a variety of lively, team-oriented games to acquire points. Games included soccer darts, bubble soccer, twister, and three-way tug of war for which teams had to beat the strength of two additional teams to win. However, the goal of the day wasn’t to rank collegia performance; it was a way to bring as many first through fourth-year medical students together to get to know each other while fostering some friendly competitive spirit, said James Mayer, MD, event coordinator and MCOM assistant dean of Clinical Curriculum and Career Advising.

“This is the first time we’ve been able to get students across all four years together for an afternoon of fun,” Dr. Mayer said.  “This event will hopefully kick start something bigger as we get closer to the new building opening and all the collegia have their own space to meet. I am excited about our turnout for today and hope it’ll only get bigger next year.”

Charles J. Lockwood, MD, MHCM, USF Health senior vice president and MCOM dean, with the nine collegia chairs and hosts of the Collegia Olympics.

The collegia Paracelsus, wearing green T-shirts representing the color of their crest, took home top honors, 52-51, as they just squeaked past Farmer, wearing light blue T-shirts.  The collegias Koch (pink T-shirts), and Hippocrates, wearing black T-shirts representing their crest, tied for third with 50 points.

Tyler Palbicke, first-year medical student and the event’s master of ceremonies, conducts an interview with second-year medical student and orange collegia chair Sean Rosensweig.

Fourth-year medical student Luke O’Neil (left) and Patrick Mullen race up the rock wall during the Collegia Olympics.

Soccer darts was one of the events for which the collegia teams could earn points.

First-year medical student Michelle Yeagley waits inside the inflatable bubble as her team prepares for bubble soccer.

Paracelsus took home top honors for the first MCOM Collegia Olympics.

-Photos by Fredrick J. Coleman, USF Health Communications and Marketing

Nearly a year has passed since students in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine formed nine collegia, a mentor-building practice that sorts new students into various “houses” with students from all years.

The aim was to provide smaller groups that allow students across all years to connect and create positive, supportive environments, resulting in a better college experience and a better likelihood for academic success. They also help with the challenges of a both growing class size and the numerous classroom and clinical locations students visit across their four years of medical school.

Early last fall, the medical students created the nine MCOM collegia. They are called Bourne, Debakey, Farmer, Galen, Hippocrates, Koch, Lower, Osler, and Paracelsus (see images below). Along with the names, the students developed crests that help further define each group.

Since then, the groups have met socially and even competed in several challenges, from sports (such as a combined dodge ball/capture the flag competition) to recipe cook-offs, to costume contests at Halloween, to attending entertainment events around Tampa. Based on success wins or attendance, the collegia added points to their cumulative scores along with the way. The group with the most points at the end of the year was named overall winner and called Bullympics Champion – the inaugural collegium winner is the green team: Paracelsus.

“I congratulate ‘Gang Green’ on being the first annual winners of the Collegia competition,” said Peter Silverman, collegia director (’13-’14). “I’m proud of all the efforts made by the students and those who helped in the founding of Collegia system, specifically Neil Manimala, Vignesh Doraiswamy, and the Office of Student Affairs. I look forward to seeing this program continue to grow in the future and better unite our medical school.”

The Green Team Paracelsus are, from left, Kevin Hansen, Nakul Batra, Preston Ebaugh, Alex Guillaume, Stephanie Grewe, Brad Miller, Ben Ferry, Sara Garcia, Brad Montane, Camila Cabrera, Dhyana Sankar, Cathy Lee, Meg Kubala, Nigel Arruda, Reid Wilson, Holly O’Brien, and Tucker Burr.

“We had a great turnout for the events and challenges,” said Vignesh Doraiswamy, a fourth-year medical student and last year’s administrative vice president on Medical Student Council, which helped coordinate much of the collegia efforts. “Everyone really got into the events. The Halloween costume contest, for example, showed a lot of creativity I hadn’t expected to see.”

The concept of collegia is not new; the practice has long been used at boarding schools and colleges and is gaining momentum at medical schools, including Vanderbilt and the University of Miami.

With barely a year under its belt, the MCOM collegia effort has been a positive thing, Doraiswamy said.

“When we were grouped by our class year, we would still all hung out as a class,” he said. “But now, as part of collegia, it works more vertically, interacting with all of the classes. That really helps break the ice because we’ve already interacted socially as groups of multiple class years. I think that gives us a stronger sense of satisfaction.”

Behind the adventure and magic found in the Harry Potter series is a mentor-building practice actually used in many boarding schools, colleges and medical schools – sorting new students into various “houses” with students from all years to help the newcomers immediately feel welcomed into the fold of an institution, regardless of its size.

The same approach is being started at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine (MCOM).

As 177 first-year medical students start classes this fall, they will be forming nine collegia – smaller groups that contain members from all four classes of medical students, with an aim to also integrate more faculty and alumni in the future. Numerous medical schools across the country have similar programs for mentorship and social interaction, including Vanderbilt and the University of Miami.

Creating smaller communities allows for students across all years to connect and create positive, supportive environments that result in a better college experience and a better likelihood for academic success, said Neil Manimala, second-year medical student and the USF Medical Student Council President.

“Collegia can be an answer to a few critical challenges a student body faces today: growing class size and geographically divergent students, whether they be a few miles south at Tampa General or a thousand miles north in Allentown, Pennsylvania,” Manimala said. “Being a member of a collegium gives each student an opportunity for cross-class and cross-program collaboration. There will be outstanding opportunities for mentorship both from upperclassmen and from practicing physicians.”

With the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine continuing to grow – over the past decade, it has nearly doubled its incoming class – the collegia was just one way to make a growing student body feel more personal, he said.

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Manimala said the MCOM group started after students worked with MCOM administration, MCOM Career Advising and the USF Medical Student Council.

“The collegium provides a structure to allow not only faculty mentoring and advising, but ‘near mentoring’ of students by students,” said Allesa English, MD, PharmD, director of MD Career Advising in the MCOM Office of Educational Affairs.

“Being able to make these connections across the years while in school will facilitate students’ performance in school and career decision making, particularly as residency placement becomes more competitive across the country.”

Last year, medical students from all four years were randomly divided up into nine collegia.

But the real kickoff event was held this August during the medical school’s orientation week, when new first-year students socialized and met their second-year mentors. There were also told they were initiating the first year of a new tradition.

“We told them they have both the responsibility and privilege of being the first class fully immersed in the collegia,” Manimala said.

The first-years were tasked with creating a symbol for their respective collegium.

“Some were more lighthearted and some were serious, but they all conveyed personality,” Manimala said. “We are working with the Office of Educational Affairs to polish these symbol drawings for presentation to all four classes in each collegium. We are glad so many second-year leaders were there to advise the first-years during orientation week. We are looking forward to getting third- and fourth-year mentors involved in the next few weeks as well.”

Over the next few weeks, first-year students will present finalized names for each collegium to their upperclassmen.

“I can tell you that there was a lot of energy in each of those nine rooms as they drew symbols,” Manimala said. “It was a great way to harness the innovation and creativity that is abundant in our student body. We’re excited to keep that momentum moving forward into the year.”

Dr. English agrees.

“We’ve been so pleased with the student response to the program,” she said. “The student leaders have been particularly receptive to the idea, and see this as an opportunity to further develop the culture of MCOM.”

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Once established, the group is planning connection opportunities, including encouraging faculty and alumni advisors to have events and meetings off campus for a richer experience, intramural sporting events and other aspects of student life here on campus, Manimala said.

“We will also be changing up the Bullympics tradition to complement the Collegia program,” he said. “Every year before this, Bullympics was a competition between classes, but this year, it will be a competition between Collegia, and may even involve other USF Health programs. Members of each Collegia will get a chance to win points by winning Bullympics sporting events, cook-offs, charity runs, fundraising, and more throughout the year. They will get a chance to chart their progress at a common area on campus. It will be lots of fun, and I’m excited to see students engaged in a shared community.”

Story by Sarah A. Worth, photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Office of Communications