Professor Chen plays Rockband.

Professor Chen plays Rockband. He also bakes a mean loaf of bread. Professor Long lives in the heart of downtown and has an eye for interior decor. Professor Sudhir has a 9-year old daughter who just introduced her classmates to Diwali. Professor Swersey, well I could go on and on about him.During undergrad, I never got to know my professors. I imagined them after class, not going home to families, but teleporting to far off spaceships, or sleeping in a pod. I would not have been surprised to find they came with batteries or required an outlet to recharge. The fact that, in my mind, my professors weren’t human, made them extremely difficult to talk to. It’s different at SOM. Our professors have lives and interests beyond what they teach us in class. And getting to know them is not only accepted, it’s encouraged. Through Student Academic Services, we can invite faculty for a one-on-one, complementary coffee chat. Most professors have open door policies and if not, they are happy to schedule time for questions (which is how I discovered the currency exhibit in Professor Gorton's office). This culminates with a fundraiser for the Internship Fund where prizes, like a trip to Mohegan Sun with Professors Lee and Swersey or an evening of Rockband with Professor Chen, are auctioned off to the highest bidder (and these bids get high). At my undergrad, you’d have to pay me to hang out with professors, not the other way around. This is a huge part of Yale SOM’s culture, which encourages collaboration, not just among students, not just among faculty, but among the entire SOM community. It makes the experience here that much richer—for all of us.