People of The Pearl meets Tafline Arbor, Ph.D.
The final day of Dr. Tafline Arbor’s anatomy class was unlike any other, as first-year medical students stretched their legs and minds for the inaugural Human Structure and Function Cup Competition at The Pearl.
The competition was a wild and fun relay race with neuro-anatomical themed quiz questions and silly activities. The students split into several groups, representing the Yellow and Green Learning Communities – also known as houses – which provide medical students with support, mentoring and extracurricular activities that help aid in success during all four years of their studies.
The winner of the competition would bring honor and bragging rights to their house. They also took home the “Calix Anatomicus” (Champions of Anatomy) trophy, which is fittingly adorned with a model heart at its center.
“Our students are wonderful, they’ve worked really hard, they’ve learned a ton and I thought they just needed a little bit of fun infused in as they are finishing up the year,” says Arbor, anatomy discipline director at Wake Forest University School of Medicine Charlotte. “I wanted a celebration for all they’ve gone through this year.”
Arbor earned her undergraduate degree at Wake Forest University before she and her husband moved away to earn their advanced degrees, begin their careers and raise children. Her love for North Carolina and the institution drew her back, and she’s now at Wake Forest University School of Medicine Charlotte overseeing its new anatomy program and curriculum, and teaching the Human Structure and Function course across students’ first two years.
“I get to interact with the students from the day they enter the medical school until the day they leave,” Arbor says. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to be able to work with these bright, young thinkers.”
In addition to her excitement for the opportunity to help build a curriculum at the new medical school campus, which she had done before in a previous role, Arbor was also inspired by the ecosystem surrounding her at The Pearl.
“I think The Pearl is pretty incredible because we’re bringing together all kinds of different colleagues working around medicine and health care and science,” she says.” It’s pretty special that it’s created in such a way that I can interact with somebody from IRCAD North America one moment, somebody from Advocate Health administration another moment, and we’re all bumping into each other. It really shows the continuum from incipient medical student all the way to the highest executives of the health system.”
Arbor showed her love of the anatomy education profession and penchant for fun by wearing a bedazzled skeleton shirt to the competition. She checked students’ answers to quiz questions before green-lighting them to begin each physical challenge, which included assembling a puzzle depicting a skull and brain, putting a golf ball with a leg bone, anatomy-themed Pictionary, and tossing a plastic brain into a bucket.
The first team to finish the activities and pop a balloon at the front of the class (naturally, being held by a grinning, life-sized model skeleton) would be the victors.
Ultimately, the Green House team captured victory, but fun, laughter and a reinforcement of anatomical knowledge was shared by all. It’s exactly what Arbor envisioned as she began this new educational journey last summer.
“It was meant to be, and it’s wonderful,” she says.
