The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Friday, September 9, 2011 - 5A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Friday, September 9, 2011 - 5A
DUNCAN
From Page 1A
makes an enormous difference on
kids' opportunities," she said in
an interview after the event. "As
Arne said, this is the civil rights
issue of our time, and I really
think he's right about that."
The panel, also including
School of Education Profs. David
Cohen, Annemarie Palincsar and
Rob Sellers and Associate Profs.
Peter Bahr, Bob Bain, focused on
a variety of issues in the realm
of education reform. The pan-
elists discussed the challenges
of working with aging teachers
wary of new federal standards,
how to address the needs of
under-performing schools and
the need to increase the pres-
ence of minority teachers in
classrooms.
The panel also highlighted the
need to prepare a new generation
of teachers for the challenges
of teaching in low-performing
schools in diverse communities.
Duncan, in particular, stressed
the need of acclimating a new
crop of teachers to challenges in
today's classrooms.
"We have a new generation of
teachers who are going to come
in and fill about a million jobs of
teachers about to retire, and we
have to do a much better job of
preparing them to be successful
from day one," Duncan said.
Peter Cunningham, assistant
secretary for communications
and outreach at the U.S. Depart-
ment of Education, also stressed
in an interview with the Daily
that improvements in education
start with preparing teachers.
"This is a region of the coun-
try that has struggled some but
also has tremendous potential,
and a lot of that potential is in
our classrooms," Cunningham
said. "We think that we need to
do a better job of training teach-
ers, and that really falls on the
colleges and universities around
the country that have schools
of education to step up and do a
better job preparing teachers to
teach in classrooms."
He continued: "We want to
make sure that our young people
reach their full potential and
have every opportunity to suc-
ceed."
The panelists also discussed
the role ofeducationprograms in
ensuring new teachers' success
in the classroom. The panelists
stressed that classroom experi-
ence alone - through programs
such as Teach for America -
doesn't always give teachers the
complete skill set they need.
In an interview with the Daily
after the event, Ball highlighted
the large number of University
graduates who participate in the
Teach for America program. In
2010, the University sent the sec-
ond-most number of graduates
into the teaching corps with 79
participants, according to Teach
for America data. However, Ball
said it would be beneficial for
these students to have formal
teacher training before starting
in the classroom.
"The University of Michi-
gan has an amazing number of
undergraduates who are very in
touch with improving education,
and they're so socially commit-
ted," Ball said. "But one of the
things I would like to invite more
undergraduates to learn about is
what it would mean to be skillful
enough to work in an urban com-
munity well, even if it's just for a
couple of years.
"(The University has) sent a
ton of people to Teach for Amer-
ica, and an alternative would
be to come here (to the School
of Education) and become very
skilled so that you're really ready
to work in those communities."
GUPTA
From Page 1A
energetic pace and greeted a fel-
low Wolverine he'd never met
before like an old friend.
He welcomed me in his cor-
ner office overlooking Centen-
nial Olympic Park, where giant
steel torches remind tourists that
Atlanta hosted the 1996 Summer
Olympics. Though it was the mid-
dle of June, grey clouds spanned
the sky and threatened rain. At
first, Gupta's mood reflected the
odd summer weather as he told me
about the segment he just finished
about his longtime friend who
was losing a battle with life. But
as the subject turned to Michigan
and the days he spent as a resident
advisor in West Quad, the smile
that got him named one of Peo-
ple's "Sexiest Men Alive" made an
appearance.
It's also that smile that greets
American Morningviewers at 7:30
a.m. to warn of the health risks of
cell phones or announce ground-
breaking medical discoveries like
the cause of Lou Gerhig's disease.
It's the smile that greets patients
with life-threatening tumors to
let them know they're going to be
OK. And it's the smile that ignited
after Michigan football games,
when the Wolverines creamed
Ohio State and Ann Arbor erupted
in celebration.
And it's that smile Gupta wore
as he proudly talked of his college
days: "I was pretty true blue. It
would have taken a lot to get me
not to go to Michigan."
Gupta attended the University
of Michigan starting in 1986. He
remained there the next seven
years as part of Inteflex - a now
defunct program that combined
pre-med and medical school and
accepted students straight out of
high school. While Gupta applied
to several universities, he grew up
watching Michigan sports with
his dad, an alum, and fell in love
with Ann Arbor at an early age.
"I was pretty confident I want-
ed to go there when I was in grade
school," he said.
At the University, he had men-
tors like Karin Muraszko, current
chair of the Department of Neu-
rosurgery, neurosurgeon Greg
Thompson and Julian Hoff, the
chair of the neurosurgery depart-
ment at the time, who Gupta con-
sidered not only a role model, but a
father figure.
It was these surgeons, and
many others, who trained the
man Forbes would name one of
"the most influential celebrities"
in 2011.
As a teen, Gupta suffered a
significant head injury that was
treated at the University Hospital.
People mistakenly assume that
sparked his decision to enter a
career in neurosurgery.
But Gupta originally wanted to
be a pediatrician. That changed
when his grandfather had a stroke
during his third year in Medical
School. Gupta came to know his
grandfather's neurosurgeons who
took time to answer questions the
curious student posed about their
field.
"I thought the idea that you're
working on a part of the body that
is constantly changing in terms
of what we know about it would
make it a very-dynamic field, that
every operation was different in
some way - I thought that was
exciting," Gupta said.
Fast forward to today, and
Gupta suits up in scrubs at Grady
Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, but
not as the full-time neurosurgeon
he thought he would be. On a pie
chart of his career, the circle is
split half medicine and half media.
So how did a neurosurgeon
come to win an Emmy for Out-
standing Feature Story, a Health
Communications Achievement
Award from the American Medi-
cal Association and title of "Jour-
nalist of the Year?" You could say it
was all about timing - and meet-
ing the right people.
His journalism career kicked
off at The Michigan Daily where
he wrote opinion pieces about
public health policies. After grad-
uation, Gupta continued to write
on the subject for local newspa-
pers and small magazines. He also
collaborated with other writers
on a series of 14 articles on health
policy for The Economist. In 1997,
he worked in Washington D.C. as
a White House Fellow and wrote
health care speeches for then First
Lady Hillary Clinton.
Gupta described the experience
as "quite daunting," but can now
laugh about the times he present-
ed speeches to Clinton after sleep-
less nights filled with writing,
checking grammar and checking
it again.
"She would sit there reading it
with you, and you would be there
reading her face - does she like
it, does she hate it, is she going to
yell at me?" said Gupta, only half
joking.
While trying to win approval
from the First Lady, Gupta met
CNN chair and CEO Tom John-
son, who was trying to start a
medical unit at CNN. This was the
late 90s, when newspapers and
magazines covered health news
well, but television didn't, Gupta
explained. Johnson wanted to
change that by hiring Gupta.
"I had really no idea frankly
what he was talking about or
how I would help because I didn't
understand it," Gupta said.
So he turned the offer down.
In2001, Gupta ran into Johnson
again. Johnson gave him a tour of
the CNN newsroom that Gupta
saw as a "really inspiring place
filled with a lot of curious people."
His own curious nature won
him over, and Gupta accepted the
job,thinkinghe would coverhealth
policy. Six weeks later two planes
struck the World Trade Center.
Gupta was called to the scene
where he reported from New York
and later led breakingnews on the
dangers of anthrax.
He then covered the War in
Iraq. Haiti earthquake. Pakistan
floods. Japan tsunami. Somalia
famine.
"I evolved into this global
health reporter as a result of what
was happening in the world at the
time," Gupta explained.
CNN's senior medical cor-
respondent Elizabeth Cohen
described Gupta's reporting amid
war zones and natural disasters as
"nothingshort of outstanding."
"He's fearless, yet tells people's
stories so tenderly," Cohen wrote
in an e-mail interview. "He gets
right to the heart of what's hap-
pening in that region."
With each deadly disaster,
Gupta redefined health coverage
and set the standard for medical
reporting - mostly because no
doctor had done it before.
"There was no sort of rule book
for this ... there was no sort of prac-
ticing surgeon who was on a 24
hour news network," Gupta said.
Somehow, the neurosurgeon-
journalisthybrid makes it all work.
In the mornings and afternoons
he's on air. Every Thursday he sees
patients. Every Monday he's in the
operating room - regardless of
breaking news.
Instead of abandoning a patient
when the earthquake and tsunami
struck Japan in March, Gupta
took a flight on a Tuesday.
"No one is going to die frankly
if I'm not there 24 hours earlier,"
he said. "Everyone (at CNN) sort
of gets that."
Dr. Dan Barrow, chair of the
department of neurosurgery at
Emory University Hospital in
Atlanta, hired Gupta for a part-
time position at Grady Memorial
Hospital after the chair of CNN
called him up one day and asked
for a favor - to hire a man who
wouldn't accept a CNN job if it
meant giving up medicine.
Barrow had met Gupta when
he was a White House Fellow, and
the two kept in touch throughout
the years. When Barrow heard it
was Gupta he was asked to hire, he
didn't have to think twice.
Sitting in his office at 8 a.m. one
Friday in July, clad in greenish-
grey scrubs, Barrow explained
how his colleague has a "remark-
able ability to step out of the CNN
Dr. Gupta and step into the role
as the Emory physician Dr. Gupta
very readily."
"(He can) turn the switch and go
frombeing ahardcore investigative
reporter asking tough questions of
people, to being avery compassion-
ate physician," Barrow said.
Barrow also joked that Gupta
has secretly figured out a way to
not have to sleep.
Gupta is one of two neurosur-
geons at Grady, a hospital which
covers the cost of patients from
Fulton and DeKalb counties in
Georgia who don't have the means
to pay for medical care. Because he
sees drop-in and trauma patients in
a clinic setting, Gupta isn't obligat-
ed to see patients regularlylike the
20 neurosurgeons at Emory Hos-
pital. Barrow has also let him slide
on taking emergency calls at night
since he has to be on air before 8
a.m. for America Morning.
"We've made accommodations
for him very willingly because he
is an asset to the department in
many many ways," Barrow said.
Gupta mostly attends to injuries
and accidents, and he's never short
of patients.
"I get a lot of referrals because
people are like, 'I want to see that
guy. I see him on TV,' which is
kind of silly," Gupta said. "I say,
you know, 'just because I'm on TV,
doesn't make me good.' I mean, I
think I'm good, but it's not because
I'm on TV."
Muraszko, one of Gupta's men-
tors from the University Hospital,
says she's proud of what Gupta has
done with his career but thinks
it's tough for him to "live in two
worlds."
"He's in a very unique set of
circumstances in that he ... tries
to make sure that he stays valid
as a neurosurgeon and not just be
totally a health science reporter,"
she said.
Atthisstageinhiscareer, Gupta
has made neurosurgery a priority.
It's a decision that became evident
when he turned down President
Barack Obama's offer in 2009 to
be the U.S. Surgeon General.
While sitting on a couch next to
the upper body of a human skel-
eton, Gupta confidently explained
that he made the right decision.
"Everybody who knows me knows
I don't live in the world of regrets
or second guessing," he said.
If he had taken the job at age 39,
he would have had to give up prac-
ticing medicine during the four-
year term.
"It's a bit ironic that the surgeon
general can't practice surgery," he
admitted.
Barrow was duck hunting with
his father at 6 a.m. during the
Thanksgiving holiday when his
cell phone rang, and Gupta's name
flashed on the screen. Barrow
thought there was an emergency,
but was pleasantly surprised when
Gupta confidentially told him
about his nomination and sought
advice on what to do.
"I was very torn because obvi-
ously I thought he would do a
great job... on the other hand, I
selfishly didn't wanthim to leave,"
Barrow said.
As the news started to spread,
Barrow said he was amazed by the
number of people and politicians
who criticized Gupta as a can-
didate. He pointed to Rep. John
Conyers (D-Mich.) specifically
who wrote aletter to fellow House
Democrats, urging them to oppose
Obama's nomination.
"Clearly, it is not in the best
interests of the nation to have
someone like this who lacks the
requisite experience needed to
oversee the federal agency that
provides crucial health care assis-
tance to some of the poorest and
most underserved communities in
America," Conyers wrote.
Even today, Barrow has trouble
bottling his anger over the accusa-
tion. "His comment that this guy
'isn't really a doctor' troubled me
and made me realize that people
probably just think that Sanjay
spends all of his time at CNN,"
Barrow said.
Barrow told one reporter who
called him for a quote that "Mr.
Conyers ought to do his homework
before he makes comments like
that" and that "Sanjay not only is
a real doctor who practices, but he
happens to practice in an indigent
care 1,000 bedhospital."
"He takes care of people that
have all the issues and the prob-
lems that our next president is
going to have to face ... If anybody
is in a position to understand what
those needs areit's SanjayGupta,"
said Barrow, waving his arms
behind his rich wooden desk.
"This is what he does everyday of
his life, he's not working in some
country club hospital."
Ultimately, Gupta came to a
decision. By the time the term
ended, he would be too removed
from the evolving field of neuro-
surgery to step back in the oper-
ating room. Plus, he had a wife
- who he met at Palio on Main
Street where she waitressed -two
young daughters and one more on
the way at the time. ,
At age 41, Gupta recognizes he's
still young, and there will be more
chances to work in public service
in the future.
For now, his career and fam-
ily are all that matter. And when
there's time, the former Men's
Glee Club member likes to visit a
"special place" he calls Ann Arbor.
In his previous visits, he gave the
2009 Medical School commence-
ment address and conducted the
last interview with euthanasia
activist Dr. Jack Kevorkian before
he died in June.
His next return isn't work-
related. The self-proclaimed "true
blue" Wolverine made sure to
buy tickets months in advance to
the first ever football night game
against Notre Dame.
As he sat in his CNN office
- as pristine as an OR -Gupta
explained that when people look
back on their life, they think of
moments. If they're asked what
happened in 2009, they may think
of one moment from that year. The
point, he said, is when you're hav-
ing a moment, make it count.
"Make it something that you
will talk about 15, 20 years from
now," he said. "I'm reminded of
that because I'm really excited
about going to this football game.
I think it's going to be one of those
moments I will remember from
2011. That moment. Memorable
moments. That's how you look at
your life."
ABROAD
From Page 1A
sources and men's sexual practices
and whether there were shortcom-
ings in the sex education system
that could lead to sexual health
problems later in life.
The most significant part of the
trip, he said, was forming relation-
ships despite the language barrier.
"I would say, probably the big-
gest (take away) would be the uni-
versality of a smile," he said. "I
don't know - there's something
about it. People, when they travel,
usually note that people are not as
engaging, and I stuck out like a sore
thumb in India, and I did get a lot of
stares, but those occasional smiles
did make a huge difference."
While LSA junior Gallal Obeid
did a little traveling around Europe
this summer, he spent most of his
time working at the Acole Poly-
technique Federale de Lausanne in
Switzerland, where he researched
Parkinson's disease.
"I've never learned so much in
so little time," Obeid said. "I really
wished I could stay longer."
Like Hakim, Obeid said one
of the main benefits of his time
abroad was learning about a dif-
ferent culture first hand. And he
said he plans to return to Switzer-
land next summer to continue his
research.
"I was really worried about the
cultural boundaries and being
alone," he said. "But I learned that
wherever you go, if the people there
are the ones that make the trip, the
people make the journey and you
really learn from them. They really
made the experience worth it."
LSA junior Mel Hebeisen's trav-
els this summer involved a trip to
Indonesia through the Univer-
sity's Global Intercultural Experi-
ence for Undergraduates program.
Hebeisen's group researched the
preservation of traditional Indo-
nesian culture, which she said is
being eroded by tourism.
Hebeisen said she chose the
program because she wanted to be
immersed in an unfamiliar culture
while experiencing the comfort
and safety of traveling with Uni-
versity students.
"I chose Indonesia because I
knew I'd probably never have a
chance to go to Southeast Asia, and
it was a culture that I really wasn't
familiar with at all," she said.
Hebeisen added that her favor-
ite part of the journey was living
with her homestay family because
her experiences during that time
allowed her to truly learn about life
in Indonesia.
"You got to see how a family
functions, and you got really close
to the parents and the siblings and
you could kind of tell them about
what the U.S. was like and they
would tell you what their life was
like ... which was really awesome,"
she said.
Hebeisen added that along with
the knowledge about Indonesian
NGOs and their efforts to preserve
traditional culture, her time abroad
instilled in her two new ideas: the
need to reduce stress in her life and
to learn more about people.
"We're so scheduled and every-
thing is so intense and competi-
tive, and it made me kind of step
back and realize how stressful my
life is and how I can change that,"
she said. "I learned how important
it is to get to know people around
you and how important it is to ask
people questions about their life
and really not just talk about sur-
face things - talk about things that
are important to people - because
then you really get to know who
they are."
LSA junior Alexander Lud-
wig also spent time this summer
engaging in community outreach.
Ludwig spent two weeks working
with the Honduras Medical Bri-
gade, which organized a medical
mission trip.
During the first week, partici-
pants went to a preschool, helped
open a free clinic and distributed
health and hygiene samples to
patients. The second week was
spent providing basic necessities
for local homes.
"We helped them build a bath-
room, a water storage system, a
stove, and then we also cemented
their floors so that they wouldn't
get a deadly virus that people get in
Honduras from walking barefoot
on the ground," Ludwig said.
Not only did the trip increase
Ludwig's determination to go into
the medical field, but it also forced
him to reconsider his priorities.
"The biggest life lesson I learned
was to really appreciate the loved
ones that you have, because the
people of Honduras only really had
their loved ones. They didn't have
any materialistic items like we do,"
he said. "They just have the love
of each other, and here in America
we have been clouded by material
things, and we sometimes forget
about those closest to us."
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