Meeting the challenge

The Alumni Challenge invites COM graduates to commit $5,000 a year over five years to the College of Medicine.

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Jason Rosenberg, MD

When it comes to helping others achieve great things, Jason Rosenberg will always accept the challenge.

As a Gainesville plastic surgeon specializing in breast cancer reconstruction, he has a profound effect on the lives of women struggling with the devastating realities of cancer. Through one of his many charitable activities, he helps the University of Florida fund scholarships for bright students with the ability for a UF education but not the means. Rosenberg is usually the first to step up to the plate. And he’s done it again for the College of Medicine.

Rosenberg, a 1995 College of Medicine graduate and member of the Medical Alumni Board of Directors, believes UF’s medical alumni are looking for an opportunity to say thank you to their college.

“We haven’t been given a good opportunity to do that … until now,” he said. Rosenberg has taken a lead role in the campaign to build a new, state-of-the-art building for medical education by initiating the Alumni Challenge earlier this year.

“It’s crucial that we raise the seed money needed to lay the foundation to get this building built,” he said. “It’s not that hard to want to do it.”

The alumni board-sponsored Alumni Challenge invites COM graduates to commit $5,000 a year over five years to the College of Medicine and the new HSC Medical Education building fund — with the goal of enlisting 100 alums.

“There are causes that come along that are no-brainers, and for me this is one of them,” said Rosenberg. “I want to help make it a reality that UF med students don’t have to sit in the same seats we all sat in 20, 30 and 40 years ago. That is a meaningful contribution.”

Rosenberg has another motive for convincing alumni to show support for the college’s plan to upgrade facilities.

“Wouldn’t it be great to demonstrate to the current students a culture of giving and gratitude?” he says. “We have a chance to create that spirit among UF medical students for generations to come.”

For more information about the Alumni Challenge and the new HSC Medical Education Building fund, please contact the Office of Medical Alumni Affairs at 352-273-7986.