{"id":107859,"date":"2022-09-30T16:43:31","date_gmt":"2022-09-30T20:43:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/busm\/?p=107859"},"modified":"2025-01-10T15:44:23","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T20:44:23","slug":"students-faculty-administrators-cheer-historic-name-change-major-donation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/2022\/09\/30\/students-faculty-administrators-cheer-historic-name-change-major-donation\/","title":{"rendered":"Students, Faculty, Administrators Cheer Historic Name Change, Major Donation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Four<\/p>\n

Up until the big reveal, attention had been focused on the two men on stage. Edward Avedisian and Aram Chobanian, MD, were childhood friends whose parents had fled genocide in Turkish Armenia in the 1910s. They lived four doors away from one another in Pawtucket, R.I., and both achieved remarkable success \u2013 Avedisian as a clarinetist with the Boston Pops and Boston Ballet Orchestra and as an extremely savvy investor who quietly accumulated a fortune, and Chobanian who had a long career at Boston University as a pioneering cardiologist, dean of the medical school, medical campus provost and university president.<\/p>\n

\"new<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The two were onstage on Talbot Green Thursday afternoon to announce Avedisian\u2019s donation of $100 million and the renaming of the medical school as the Aram V. Chobanian & Edward Avedisian School of Medicine. Under the big white tent they were joined by invited guests, medical and graduate students and other curious passersby that had gathered on the lawn to witness the new name revealed on the entrance to the Instructional building.<\/p>\n

Reactions from the audience varied depending on their connection to Avedisian and Chobanian and how the $100 million \u2013 with $50 million going to student scholarships, $25 million to endowed professorships, and another $25 million to research and teaching \u2013 will affect them.<\/p>\n

All were drawn to the story of a lifelong friendship.<\/p>\n

\"Headshot
Melissa Hwang<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt was so heartwarming to see the both of them talk about the challenges they had to overcome and the people they helped along the way,\u201d said Melissa Hwang, a second-year medical student from Taiwan who had volunteered to work the event Thursday.<\/p>\n

\"Headshot
Eva Gaufberg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s incredible. I feel everything helps,\u201d said second-year medical student Eva Gaufberg, from Winchester, Mass., who also volunteered to help out at the ceremony. Gaufberg found it extremely thoughtful that Avedisian decided to give the largest portion of the gift to relieve student debt.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing able to make things even just a little bit more affordable is important and something I think a lot of students think about when choosing a school,\u201d said Gaufberg.<\/p>\n

\"Headshot
Jack Ruske<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI can say that debt is on the minds of all medical students,\u201d said Jack Ruske, a third-year MD student. \u201cStudents will be able to come and train at BU and BMC (teaching affiliate Boston Medical Center) and do that because they want to help underserved populations rather than going somewhere else that is less expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Headshot
Angela Jackson, MD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Angela Jackson, MD, associate dean for student affairs and associate professor of medicine\/GIM, thought the additional scholarship money would make a huge difference to students. But she also felt the message being conveyed by the gift was an affirmation of the students and the medical school\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost important is that there is an individual who cares so much about the future of medical students as individuals, and also about the future of medicine\u2026that they are willing to provide this huge gift to the medical school,\u201d said Jackson. \u201cI think it speaks volumes to the recognition that we\u2019re doing good work\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Headshot
Angelique Harris, PhD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt really highlights and emphasizes the role and the influence the institution has because (Avedisian) could have given this money to a number of different institutions,\u201d said Angelique Harris, PhD, associate dean of diversity & inclusion. \u201cI was very excited about the prospect of faculty who are doing this really innovative, incredible research being able to be retained here\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Headshot
Fredric Majnoun<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a fellow Armenian, Fredric Majnoun, associate dean for research administration, was proud to see Avedisian\u2019s and Chobanian\u2019s names on the medical school. Chobanian hired him 22 years ago. The $50 million split between endowed professorships and teaching and research will help recruit and retain high quality faculty, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecruiting faculty is expensive, and these kinds of donations will help us compete with other universities,\u201d said Majnoun. The money also helps retain faculty.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives them the freedom to choose what kind of research they want to do, who they want to recruit, what kind of equipment they want to purchase and what renovations need to be done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Headshot
Benjamin Wolozin, MD, PhD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chobanian also hired Benamin Wolozin, MD, PhD, professor of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics, who stood on the sidewalk watching the ceremony.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just have a really warm place in my heart for him,\u201d said Wolozin. \u201cHe\u2019s such an amazing guy and the idea of a name change that reflects on two people so intimately connected to BU, I think it\u2019s wonderful. And that the money fits in with the mission of BU.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wolozin said he was surprised at the size of the donation.<\/p>\n

\u201cBU needs those kinds of donations to really achieve greatness,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reactions from the audience varied depending on their connection to Avedisian and Chobanian and how the donation will affect them. All were drawn to the story of a lifelong friendship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":903,"featured_media":107866,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[91,158,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107859"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/903"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107859"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129342,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107859\/revisions\/129342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}