VOL. 56 • NUMBER 1 • SUMMER 2020
THE NEWSLETTER FOR NUHS ALUMNI
Greetings from the President
While we were aware that something was going on, we did not quite understand
the full extent of the unfolding situation. There were some whisperings of
what was happening, but my classmates and I had a quiz to focus on. After our
histology quiz, we all moved en masse as you do, discussing the questions and
deciding who was right and who answered what incorrectly. By the time we had
changed into our scrubs for the dissection lab, the conversations were beginning
to turn to a tenor of incredible if not unthinkable possibilities.
Access to on-demand video from news sources, especially from one’s phone, was
still in its infancy. It didn’t take long for a group of us to gather around the one
classmate who had a laptop with internet access. We all stood in the middle of
Janse Hall watching a video that I initially thought would be of a small Cessna
crashing into some high-rise hotel in New York city. I was wrong.
For the first and only time, we were allowed to listen to the radio in the lab. As details poured in, novel
supposition and presumption replaced the misleading information we heard from the previous half hour.
My classmates and I were not exempt from adding to the wild speculation. I remember friends borrowing
cell phones to call family who worked in Chicago high-rises. We finished our dissections, despite the
distraction.
A dozen or so of us gathered in my small apartment in Lincoln Hall. We switched back and forth between
the various news networks. We watched replays of grainy flip phone footage of the commercial airliner
slam into the side of the World Trade Center’s tower. It was the most unbelievable and tragic event that any
of us had ever seen. And then the second impact happened, in real time, right before our eyes.
Remember the life changing and world shaping events that took place while you were at National? A
new generation of students is dealing with a constantly changing situation. National students in difficult
programs of study are navigating their way through a world that looks much different than it did six months
ago. I am encouraged that current students will persevere as they look at what our alumni are doing for
their communities. Our alumni are adapting and conquering. National grads are continuing to shape and
lead their professions into the “new normal.”
For my classmates and me, the events of September 2001 changed the remainder of our time at NUHS. We
were part of a world changing event that meant learning to adapt and conquer during a very stressful time.
It meant that we would take part in difficult discussions. We would go through the world in a changed way.
A way in which beneficence, empathy, and mindfulness were paramount to understand the “new normal.”
Just remember we have all done this before. The past 114 years has seen great deal evolution and a healthy
dose of revolution in the world. We will do what National grads do. We accept the challenges, identify the
problems, and focus on the solutions. Stay well.
Esse Quam Videri
Joe Stiefel, MS, EdD, DC
President
National University of Health Sciences