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Your Gifts in Action
Diane Gottheil Award Fund Honors
a Mentor and Assists Students
When Diane Gottheil, Ph.D., announced her intention to retire in 2000,
two students who were then close to graduation, Christine Marsick and Sara
DePaul, decided to create a lasting tribute to her commitment to helping
students achieve their dreams and goals. Then associate director of the
Medical Scholars Program at the College of Medicine at Urbana-Champaign,
Diane was well known among students as a caring friend. Niranjan Karnik
was one of the students who responded to Christina and Sara’s request,
making a contribution to the student-initiated fund. “I never imagined that
it was going to be active by the time I got to be a senior student of the
Program.” Nor did he realize that he would be the first award recipient.
Awarded annually and developed to assist a student in the last year of the
Program, the Diane Gottheil Award Fund and its accompanying University
fellowship allowed Niranjan to finish his last year at Illinois without
taking on teaching responsibilities and permitted him to further enrich his
educational experience with electives taken away from campus, including
learning opportunities in places such as England and California. In fact,
his work in California led to his residency at Stanford’s Department of
Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, where he will concentrate his postdoctoral
work on adolescents who are incarcerated.
Niranjan relates that Diane was instrumental in his coming into the Program.
His original interviews with various potential advisors had not gone well,
since many of them were going to be unavailable for various reasons. He
recounts how Diane called him the next day and invited him for coffee at a
local coffee house so that they could chat about his research interests. She
provided him with additional names and contact information for advisors
that she felt could add value to his educational experience at Illinois. Diane’s
personal touch made all the difference, turning what had initially appeared
to be a negative start into a very positive outcome. One of the advisors
suggested by Diane that day did, indeed, become Niranjan’s advisor. He
comments on Diane’s dedication by saying “Diane has been a critical
person, in terms of supporting students throughout the Program. I know
that Diane has helped me significantly.”
Niranjan initially gave to the Diane Gottheil Award Fund, not realizing that
he would be the first award recipient one day. Upon his graduation, Niranjan
asked that well-wishers contribute to the Diane Gottheil Award Fund as a
token of their congratulations for him. “I guess I learned from Christine and
Sara that it’s important to leave something behind. I can think of few better
things than to build on something that they’ve already started.”
Written by Janet McGreevy, U of I Foundation
Excerpted from “Gifts in Action” on the U of I Foundation website.
Kirk Moberg, M.D., Ph.D., ‘90 (left), and Diane Gottheil, Ph.D., who served as
his advisor. Dr. Moberg is vice president of medical affairs for Carle Clinic
Association and medical director of New Choice Center for Addiction
Recovery. A clinical associate professor of medicine for the College of
Medicine, he teaches the renal curriculum to the M-2 students and
participates in the managed care and addictions curriculum for the
Internal Medicine Residency program.
Dr. Moberg states that, “Diane was a trusted advisor during my tenure in the
medical scholars program.” After continuing to assist the College with
Alumni Relations and Development, Diane “officially” retired this summer.
Visit the U of I Foundation’s website
www.uif.uillinois.edu to see more
“Gifts in Action” and how these
donations directly benefit students
and the University community.
If you would like to make a gift
to the Diane Gottheil Award Fund,
please send it to:
U of I Foundation
P.O. Box 3429
Champaign, IL 61826-9916
or online at :
http://www.med.uiuc.edu/gift/
T h e P o w e r o f C o l l a b o r a t i o n
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