 Hello, my name is Dr. Sauglius Van Diaryfaird and I am a second year fellow at the University of Maryland Greenbaum Comprehensive Cancer Center. I was raised in California and did my training in various cities along the East Coast, but the city of Baltimore was new to me when I came to do my fellowship here. I have to say that I have been pleasantly surprised with my experience here. Baltimore as a city is such a great place with so many different things to offer. It is on a waterfront, which we call the Inner Harbor, which is a great place to live but also to hang out. Baltimore also has all different kinds of neighborhoods with each with its own unique style and offerings, and there is truly something for everybody here in the city. Looking back on my experience as a first year fellow here, I would definitely have to say that it has been one of the most rewarding, challenging, but one of the most rewarding years of my education thus far. It is mainly comprised of core rotations in hematology and oncology consultation as well as leukemia service and inpatient service and the bone marrow transplant inpatient service. I would say that as a first year fellow in hematology and oncology, the transition from internal medicine residency to the fellowship can be difficult because the learning curve is definitely large. And wherever you go as a fellow, you want to know that you're going to be supported there. And looking back on my first year, I honestly can say that I felt supported the entire time. If I ever had any concerns about patient care, a consult, a procedure that I needed help with, anything at all, whether personal or professional, there was always someone here, whether it was a co-fellow and attending or administrative staff, to help me with whatever I needed. And that took away so much of the stress that I had initially come in with. Looking back, this has truly been not only an educational and rewarding year, but it's also been so much fun. And I am so happy that I'm a fellow here. Hi, I'm Dr. Heather Manuel. I'm an associate program director at the University of Maryland Greenabomb Comprehensive Cancer Center. I am also the section chief of hematology oncology at the Baltimore VA Medical Center. So I get to see our fellows participate in both hospitals. We are, I think, quite unique in the local and regional area in that we have a relationship and an affiliation with the Baltimore VA Medical Center. And that enables our fellows to have significant relationships and interactions with the patients of a fairly unique population. The VA Medical Center is positioned physically with attachment to the University of Maryland. So it's relatively easy access for our fellows to go back and forth to meet their patients and consult with them. Also though, a majority of our faculty members at the Cancer Center and among other subspecialties are care affiliations with the VA Medical Center. So our fellows have significant interactions with a variety of oncology subspecialists and they have ready access to assistance and education as it involves the VA patients. The patients are very challenging in many ways due to very often social and economic issues and access to care issues with these patients. Very often they have many medical comorbidities and many challenges to delivering safe and effective and comprehensive oncologic and medical care. The role that our fellows play is a very important one. They take primary care of those patients and follow them longitudinally. And it's not unusual for a fellow to meet with a patient in their first year, carry them through the first or second or even third line of chemotherapy and ultimately assist them as they recover from their cancer to deal with potential short-term and potential long-term effects of the chemotherapy. And additionally in the cases of some patients, to progress toward goals of care and end of life care. The majority of our patients have returned to us and expressed extreme gratitude for the fellows. The majority of our fellows have come back to us and expressed that they really felt that they were becoming true oncologists with their relationship with those patients. So it's a very special opportunity. My name is Dr. Michael McCusker and I am the Chief Fellow in Hematology and Medical Oncology at the University of Maryland Greenbaum Comprehensive Cancer Center. I am a Maryland and Baltimore native and explored several other programs prior to ultimately matching at the University of Maryland and I am very thankful for the education and training that I have received. There are several unique aspects to our program that really stand out for me. First, our program is adaptive and constantly evolving with the complex changes taking place in Hematology and Medical Oncology. For example, we have instituted molecular tumor boards as part of our fellow education sessions as personalized oncology is quickly becoming the new standard of care. Second, our program leadership really caters to the needs of each individual fellow through regular meetings and will work with the fellow to design their schedule to meet the needs of their career goals, whether it be more dedicated time for research or clinical work or even many fellowships in subspecialty care. Third, the patient population that we serve as a metropolitan tertiary referral center allows fellows the opportunity to see a range of hematologic and oncologic cases from common and very complex cases, which entering into practice has made me feel confident that I will be able to treat a wide range of diseases. Fourth, being a national comprehensive cancer center, fellows have the opportunity to participate in a number of meaningful research studies with outstanding faculty mentors. Our fellows regularly publish in excellent journals and present at international and national conferences with outstanding fellowship support. And finally, our VA Continuity Clinic really prepares fellows well for independent practice. At the VA, the fellow is the primary oncologist with specialty specific attending support. Here the fellow manages all patient care from diagnosis to treatment complications and surveillance. It is a true continuity clinic in that there are several patients that I saw as a first year fellow that I continue to treat now as a third year fellow.