Teaching Award Statement

I was touched to receive the Excellence in Endocrine Teaching Award from our graduating fellows. Here’s what I shared with them:

Dear fellows,

I am somewhat surprised and deeply humbled by this honor. While I have enjoyed our deliberations in clinical space, I have never thought of myself as an intentional teacher. My thoughts are more along the lines of the protagonist in J.M. Coetzee’s novel Disgrace when he is ruminating on why he teaches:

“…also because it teaches him humility, brings it home to him who he is in the world. The irony does not escape him: that the one who comes to teach learns the keenest of lessons...”

It has been an absolute delight, learning from each of you over the past 2 years. As you embark on your own journeys as endocrinologists, I want to highlight a few points.

1. As an endocrinologist, you will provide an invaluable service. The most proximate marker of importance you can see is the demand for endocrinologists in the market place and the agonizing wait times to see an endocrinologist. You will have this humbling opportunity to be part of their health and life for a large number of patients. You will be the expert in care of these disorders. Many of the clinical problems you have managed routinely. Many, you will encounter anew but you will need to find ways to manage. Often, you will be the final point of care for their endocrine challenges. You will need to summon your best capabilities and imagination. You will be leading complex teams. And you will have to prove your worth every day. From my interactions with you over these past two years, each of you is uniquely suited to meet these challenges with your intelligence and diligence. I have no doubt that you are destined to be phenomenal endocrinologists.

2. Secondly, it has been a privilege to interact with you on a human level. Each of you should know that you are truly humble and remarkable human beings. In this crowded world of human species, in the social setups that we interact in, my simple measure of excellence has been: how often are we capable of summoning the kinder and gentler versions of humanity within us? Witnessing your interactions with patients, staff, and colleagues, you all outshine many of us. I am certain you will lift your teams and community you practice into better places.

3. Finally, in this specific political moment, I would be remiss not to comment on our shared immigrant status. Particularly at a perilous moment, where students are being snatched from streets by masked men just for the act of writing an OpEd. Each of us carries a unique story and a variety of reasons for migration. Sometimes, I even struggle to locate my reasons. But, I want to point out that our species of humans have existed for ever. Those desiring interactions with other human beings beyond the constructs of borders and cultures. There are certain hard truths to this endeavor. Being unwelcome is the norm, not an anomaly. We mostly function in invisibility, and rely solely on our capacities to establish our worth. Perhaps there is a certain attraction in shedding entitlements and challenging our capacities that motivates us, but there is no doubt that we are the vessels of human progress.

I am certain it has been your experience, as it has been mine, you find good people wherever you go. We build our relationships on goodness. We dwell in community of human beings that ascribes to a more hopeful version of humanity. In the current mayhem, it may be hard to see, but this spasm of cruelty will also pass. The question is how much of damage it will inflict in the process. When we emerge at the other end, each of us will have to take stock of where we stood in this moment. In the meantime, I hope we stay safe, hold onto our dignity, take care of each other, and double down on kindness to others.

Once again, thank you for the award and for the honor of working with you for the past two years.