Alumni

After four years of academic rigor, our Hope alumni have gone on to various academic institutions. Our mission is to engage alumni with networking opportunities and ways to give back to our community.

Colleges Hope Graduates Attend

Hope Senior Updates

From the age that I could first fully conceptualize and appreciate academics, I was convinced that medicine was a field of study that I would do something with in my lifetime…This natural inclination always seemed to persist within the depths of my heart. For years I had watched family and friends grow ill with diseases and injuries that could have been easily treated had they not been deterred by or afraid to go to a hospital where almost no one spoke their language or came from a similar background. Those who sought the alternative route of professional medical attention became financially devastated by hospital bills, crippling them worse than the literal disease had. Witnessing these things on a basis more common than any boy should have, a feeling of obligation arose in me; one rooted in a desire to provide comfort where none existed; to be these peoples’ voice when it had been silenced. The world is in dire need of intelligent and motivated doctors in the medical field. More importantly, however, it is need of individuals with knowledge in all realms of study -from hard sciences to finances and even ethnicity- in order to fully understand not just the minority experience, but the human experience, and provide this long deserved representation to the fullest extent.

-Chris Cinkus

The year is 2049 and as I’m logging off of my desktop before leaving my office at John Hopkins Hospital, I stop and sit for a moment examining my office. On the wall to my right are three certificates that capture my academic success. The first one reads “University of Southern California” and memories of my undergraduate years began to stir. The next one reads “Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University” and flashbacks of dissecting cadavers and taking MCAT practice tests come to mind. The third plaque states “Certificate of Practice” and I thought of my mother and all of the patients who I took through transplant surgeries.

Down on my desk are colorful trinkets and pictures that stand proudly in my memory. The 5” by 7” picture frame was of me and a group of students in Port Au Prince, Haiti. There I was able to establish a church, build 5 water wells in remote villages, and give the school a library worth of books. Next to that picture sits a shredded baseball covered in dry clay. I remember how I taught them the game of baseball and formed a little league with sixteen teams. The “Port-au-Prince Pirates” will be defending our championship title at the Little League World Series this year in Williamsport, PA. The world map on the wall to my left makes me think of the clinics I built in 3rd world countries that are in need of medical supplies. So far, my organization “Doc International” has built clinics in Haiti, Togo, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, and Zimbabwe. Our goal is have clinics in 20 countries by the end of the year. A Dominican Republic flag rests just above the map. It reminds me daily of the hospital I built in my grandmother’s hometown, Santiago.

-Jordan Gracia

Alumni Board & Young Professionals Association

More coming soon! If you would like to stay connected or learn more, please contact Gaby Keim or Scout Muzikowski.