by Kate Thomas
Dr. Flora Yazigi ’15 was the recipient of the 2019 Arthur E. McElfresh Memorial award upon graduating summa cum laude from Saint Louis University School of Medicine.
Yazigi will be doing a three-year fellowship with the prestigious Harriet Lane Pediatric Residency Program at Johns Hopkins Hospital with the goal of eventually continuing fellowship training in neonatal medicine.
Yazigi grew up in both France and Syria, leaving Syria before the civil war started. She remembers Syria for its "beautiful country and civilization." After beginning her higher education in France, she transferred to Wofford in the fall of 2012.
"I owe so much to Wofford College and to the faculty who have encouraged me to get this far," she says.
The Arthur E. McElfresh award, which is dedicated to its namesake’s memory — the department chair between 1965 and 1977 — is given to the graduating senior who exhibits accomplishment and commitment in pediatrics.