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Medical students spend countless hours in the classroom training to become competent and compassionate caregivers. For second-year students, anatomy lab is a pivotal part of their medical education. It is when their learning goes beyond textbooks and 3D models to studying the human body through anatomical donors, or people who donate their bodies to science to further medical education. The one-of-a-kind gift from donors helps students become better physicians by providing their first opportunity to explore the many variations of complex human systems and diseases.

To honor the donors and their families for their incredible sacrifice, second-year students organized a Convocation of Gratitude ceremony on Friday, Dec. 13. The special student-led ceremony was planned by co-chairs Julia Alvey and Justin Kesler and committee members Danya Osman, Ashley Lin, Rithika Senthilkumar, and Vivien Nguyen.

We recently had a chance to talk to Julia about the ceremony and what it meant to her and her classmates to work with the donors — their “first patients and teachers.”

What is the purpose of the gratitude ceremony and who organizes it?

Julia: The Anatomical Donor Convocation of Gratitude is hosted every year at the end of pre-clerkships as a way to honor the people who became some of our greatest professors in the anatomy lab over the last year. The entire ceremony is student-run by a small committee of second-year students who apply before entering their second year and are selected by the prior year’s committee, so it truly is student-driven both in the selection process and preparation for the ceremony. We work closely with Dr. David Moyer, our professor and the director of the anatomy program, throughout the year to organize the ceremony where we give families of donors the opportunity to share their loved ones’ stories, hear and see some of the student reflections projects, and potentially meet the students who had the honor of learning from their loved one.

Why did you volunteer to take part in planning the gratitude ceremony?

Julia: I admittedly had a hard time wrapping my head around anatomical dissection before starting anatomy — when you first learn what you’ll be doing in the lab, it can feel cold or insensitive because it’s something that really is such a unique experience. Dr. Moyer provided our class with the opportunity to meet anatomical donors prior to starting in the anatomy lab, and at that time he showed me the booklet of student reflections projects and told me about the ceremony. I found comfort in knowing there would be a way to honor and thank my donor for their incredible gift, so I knew then that I wanted to be involved because it felt like a way I could begin to pay back the privilege my donor and their family had given us.

What role did these donors play in furthering your education?

Julia: Anatomy was a core component that helped me begin to better understand everything I was responsible for learning throughout the pre-clerkship curriculum. I’ve learned throughout medical school that I’m more of a visual learner, so having the opportunity to see and trace structures and connect them with normal function and disease states made what I was learning in the classroom so much more meaningful. I can still envision what I saw in the anatomy lab and use it to help me create differential diagnoses or make connections between organ systems because I can literally see in my head where the problem might be, and I don’t think I would ever be able to do that had I not had the opportunity to learn from each donor.

Do you learn about the donors prior to studying them?

Julia: We typically do not learn anything about the donors throughout most of our time in the anatomy lab. There may be things you discover as you progress through the labs that allow you to put together some pieces of a donor’s life story, but they are otherwise anonymous until you may learn more information later in the course. I was fortunate to learn about my own donor during my second year, and it made the experience all the more meaningful because I learned she was a teacher and was excited to become an anatomical donor before she passed. As I’ve spoken to families who will be attending the ceremony, it’s incredibly humbling to learn more about each donor’s story because they truly are all remarkable people, and it’s been a privilege to have the opportunity to learn from them.

Why do you think it’s so important than to have this ceremony devoted to thanking these donors and their families?

Julia: For many of the families, once their loved one becomes a donor, they are not told where their loved one may end up teaching or being involved in research. The ceremony provides us with the opportunity to help families honor their loved ones, thank the donors for the substantial gift they provided when choosing to become a donor, and hopefully bring some closure for families. Many of the donor families I’ve spoken to have expressed their gratitude for us hosting the ceremony because they never could’ve imagined having the opportunity to remember their loved one in this way once they entered the state anatomical program, so I know that this is something families often are not expecting but deeply appreciate having the opportunity to be part of.

What did you do to prepare for the event?

Julia: We worked on the ceremony from August to the day of the Convocation. A large portion of the first couple of months involves inviting the donor families and going through student reflections projects to curate the booklet we give to families at the ceremony. The majority of our time preparing for the Convocation itself took place in November and December when we really started to communicate with the families, finalize the projects for display or performance at the ceremony, reserve space and finally carry out the ceremony with the families on the day of the Convocation.

What made the event memorable?

Julia: The most important thing is that the ceremony is a positive experience for the donor families, and it really is just remarkable to hear how the Convocation can help families honor their loved ones and bring closure to what may have been a years-long journey for them. Multiple family members shared that the ceremony allowed them to have closure and that they were leaving feeling better than they did when they arrived, and that ultimately means we accomplished what we had set out to do. We do this for the families, and to know that they felt relief, and even joy, when they left the ceremony is really what makes it memorable because it means we were able to make a positive impact on the families who helped give us such an immeasurable gift.

Were there any donor stories that stood out?

Julia: We ask each donor family to share a photo of their loved one with us to display during the ceremony. There was one in particular that we had received where the loved one was dressed for holiday cookie baking in the photo, and when we opened it for the first time, we were all touched. At the ceremony, we got to learn the story behind the scene in the photo — her favorite holiday was Christmas, and she absolutely loved to bake. It was incredibly meaningful to hear the impact she left on others through her crafting and baking and how her family admired how she even found a way to continue giving to others after she had passed by donating her body.

What would you say to someone who is considering becoming an anatomical donor?

Julia: It is truly the honor of a lifetime to have the opportunity to learn from someone who chose to become an anatomical donor. Having the chance to study with anatomical donors gives students the opportunity to see the human body in a way that we will likely never get to do so again, and I know that my view of medicine, both literally and figuratively, has been forever impacted by each donor in the anatomy lab. In our class alone, one donor became a teacher to over 150 future physicians, so the impact of even one person choosing to become an anatomical donor is astounding.