Illinois Medicine

"She has the humility to T know that there is so much to learn, and she will never learn it all," he says. "Yet she delights in knowing that all of her studies will eventually allow her to make a dif- ference in the lives of thousands— and she cannot wait to do so." HOSE OPPORTU- NITIES SEEMED MORE DISTANT a few years ago when her father passed away. Brian Novak was a venture capi- talist, a self-em- ployed day trader who worked at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. "He was my best friend," Caroline Novak says. "Not a lot of people can say that about their father. I took the MCATs right after it hap- pened. I think he would have been really proud." Rita Ryan-Novak, Novak's mother, says she knew Caroline was interested in the sciences from an early age, but the main trait she and her two sisters share "is a purposeful desire to help people." Novak's older sister, An- nie, is an expert in sustainable agriculture who supplies top Manhattan restaurants from her rooftop garden in Brooklyn and writes regularly for The Atlantic. Younger sister Cat is a junior at the University of Kansas who is heavily involved in charity work. "They've chosen differ- ent pursuits, but they've always wanted to make other people's lives better—being part of the solution but in quiet ways," Ryan-Novak says. For Novak, that has be- come part of her extracurricular routine. She and Annie worked in an orphanage in South America in 2007, and she did a surgical rotation with other College of Medicine students at a hospital in Bangkok the follow- ing year. Those are just a couple of the trips she's managed to take, financing them by subletting her apartment while she's gone. "Every time I Members of the Class of 1950 whom Novak (top center) met during the 2010 Reunion were (clockwise from top left) Jerrold Widran '48, MD '50, Res '53; Richard Shifrin '48, MD '50, Res '53; and the late Leonard R. Smith, MD '50, Res '53, shown with their spouses. traveled, I sublet," she says. "The cost of living is a lot cheaper everywhere else than here, so I usually saved money traveling." Financial savvy became a must, Novak says, after her family's tragedy. Getting through college immediately became tenuous. And once Novak finished at the University of Chicago, selecting possible medical schools became a tricky process in which financial aid played a large role. At last fall's Reunion din- ner, Novak had a chance to meet a couple of the Class of 1950 physicians whose donations have helped to fund her educa- tion. She also gave a speech expressing her gratitude, and bonded quickly with orthopae- dic surgeon Leonard Smith, MD '50, and his wife, Jan. "Dr. Smith was an abso- lutely lovely man," Novak says. "We spoke about orthopaedics a bit. Dr. Smith was fascinated by how much the field had changed since he entered it. We spoke about scholarships, too. I told him how much school costs these days, and he says he wished everyone would give, so that everyone could become a doctor. He was very gracious and sweet." Smith passed away in January, but his wife, Jan, re- members Novak, and how proud her husband was to be part of the support system at his alma mater. "Caroline is a wonderful girl," says Jan Smith. "Leonard gave her advice on what to do and how to start her career. It's invaluable to speak with someone with lots of experience, and he was very devoted to the university. He loved his school." Having students come from a wide range of socioeco- nomic backgrounds at the Col- lege of Medicine makes scholar- ships all the more important, Novak says. "We had our classwide financial aid exit interview re- cently. The average indebtedness in our class is $190,000, with several people over the $400,000 mark," she says. "The average resident takes home $31,000 a year, and monthly payments on that average debt load are about $500—just to keep the interest under control without even start- ing to pay off the principal. "We all take on that mon- strous debt load because we're excited and proud about being physicians, even poor ones," No- vak adds. "If that isn't a convinc- ing argument for the necessity of scholarship support, I don't know what is." Novak was already headed into oncology when her own health issue surfaced. "It gave me a window into how people feel when they hear that word," she says. "But both my dad passing away and my diagnosis made me more driven. It makes you realize that life is short. And I feel I have a lot to accomplish." ILLINOIS MEDICINE SCHOLARSHIP STATS 119 Endowed scholarships within the College of Medicine (all sites) 13% Percentage of all College of Medicine students who received an institutional scholarship in 2010-11 Average scholarship award for 2010-11 $4,200 $177,287 9.7% Average individual debt for the Class of 2010 Compound annual growth rate of loan indebtedness for College of Medicine students from 2005-2010* * According to Association of American Medical Colleges 2009-10 Financial Aid Summary Report I L L INOI S MEDICINE | 23 PHOTO: DIANE SMUTNEY

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