and that’s Dr. Arthur Rubenstein, dean of the school of medicine.
At the white coat ceremony, he spoke about medicine being about the people and how doctors should, first and foremost, be humanists. When I returned to my family after grabbing some refreshments, and I saw my dad talking to Dr. Rubinstein, my first thought was, Oh God, my dad is cornering the Dean! Now, I love my dad with my whole heart, and his gregariousness is certainly one of my favorite attributes, but I’m afraid I’ve never gotten over the adolescent embarrassment that accompanied any casual conversation between my dad and my teachers and coaches–and my dad was certainly never shy about approaching any of them. I hurried over to try to relieve the dean and, imagine my surprise, found that he seemed to be talking to my family of his own volition! Dude, the man practices what he preaches, to say the least.
Today, in our doctoring coarse, we all got to watch the dean conduct a mock patient history with a woman who has been treated at Penn for the last five years. It was like watching an artist, his demeanor was simply impeccable. He’s like an incredibly perceptive and sensitive, overly- educated teddy bear. It’s been nagging me, he’s been reminding me of someone. And, on my bike ride home today, it finally occurred to me…Dumbledore. You know that scene at the end of book five, after Sirius dies and Harry is breaking all of Dumbledore’s trinkets in grief, and Dumbledore remains simply perfect–calm, rational, understanding, and brilliant? Yeah, that’s my dean. Oh my god, I love him!
But, who he really reminds me of, only physically…Queen Elizabeth II…or, perhaps more accurately, Helen Merrin. Check it out; tell me I’m not right?
anna in med school 
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