President's Report Masthead
September 30, 2017

A tale of two majors

Brandon Burg ’17, an aspiring physician, knew he never wanted his future patients to leave his office feeling like they were “just another number.” Burg — who pursued a pre-health track and will be attending the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine in the fall — said majoring in human development (HDEV) taught him to understand how people’s circumstances affect their care.

Burg, who was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma (cancer of the lymph system) his junior year of college, took a semester off to undergo chemotherapy. He said frequent hospital stays, experiences with multiple physicians and the effects of the illness strengthened his commitment to practice “people-centered medical care.”

He shares a few reasons why he thinks “every student at Binghamton should take an HDEV class.”

Q: Why did you decide to combine a pre-health track with HDEV?

BB: I chose the HDEV major because of its emphasis on solving the problems of individuals, families and communities. I knew it would be advantageous to know how to work with people of different cultures, ethnic, racial and socio-economic backgrounds; I didn’t think the pre-health track would teach me that alone.

Read more