scholarship by Patrick Kampert
LAUNCHING A BRILLIANT FUTURE
C
Scholarship allowed Caroline Novak's medical school dream to survive her father's death
AROLINE NOVAK has no time for self-pity.
As an un-
dergraduate at the University of Chicago, Novak lost her father in an auto accident. The tragedy also brought
financial implications that threat- ened to derail her dreams of college. Then, during her first year
at the College of Medicine, she had a minor scare when she was diagnosed with a very early stage of skin cancer. Her main complaint was that the surgery interrupted her training regimen for a month as she prepared to run another marathon. "I work in radiation oncol-
ogy. I see people every day who have it so much worse than I ever did," says Novak, who just finished her fourth year of medical school. "I focus on not letting my problems
Thanks in part to the College of Medicine's Class of 1950, Caroline Novak can look forward to a future as an oncologist.
I L L INOI S MEDICINE
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PHOTO: LLOYD DEGRANE
