Category: Uncategorized

Members of the Hektoen Institute Board and guests celebrated the second Community College Essay Contest Winners at a Brunch held Sunday, June 28, 2026, at the Sofitel Hotel Chicago.  All enjoyed the convivial atmosphere and a delicious brunch buffet.

Essay Contest Winners Tiara Davis and Sedef Ozbay. Not pictured: Alleya Williams

L-R: Doug Walker, Scholarship Donor; Dr. Ashutosh Gupta, Scholarship Donor,
Sedef Ozbay, Tiara Davis, Dr. Sally Metzler, Donor and Scholarship Initiative Founder.

Board Member Doug Siefken, Levi Moore and Alice Cameron, Hektoen Institute.

Board Members Second Row, L-R: Dr. Peter Hart, Courtney Avery, Dr. Ashutosh Gupta;
Doug Walker; Dr. Sally Metzler; Kathleen Weber; Dr. James Franklin; Doug Siefken.
Front, L-R. Dr. Earl Smith, Dr. George Dunea.

Sedef Ozbay offered remarks on her educational goals.

Tiara Davis receives scholarship award from Dr. Gupta.

https://forms.gle/k21vAz59BHnJrw7M7

We are proud to announce our inaugural 2025 scholarship recipients, and congratulate:

• Haftom Amha, Harry S. Truman College
• Valeria Cancino: Malcolm X College
• Jamarius Ducker, Kennedy-King College

Members of the Hektoen Institute Board and guests celebrated the inaugural Community College Essay Contest Winners at a luncheon held Saturday, November 22, 2025, at the Sofitel Hotel Chicago.  Board Members and their guests, along with the prize winners and their guests, enjoyed the convivial atmosphere and a delicious lunch buffet.

The Hektoen Institute Community College Scholarship program, launched in 2025, reflects Hektoen’s commitment to education and cultural enrichment by offering scholarships aimed at empowering Community College students.

Founded in 1943, Hektoen has long stood at the crossroads of science and humanities, fostering intellectual curiosity.  Our online journal, Hektoen International, explores the intersection of science, literature, art, and history. The free-access journal encourages thoughtful writing that bridges disciplines and generations.

Our goal is to encourage Community College students to strengthen their writing skills and complete their education. We aim to mitigate financial barriers for these students to matriculate. Our scholarship program is grounded in compassion, education, and the belief that meaningful stories have the power to shape a more humane world.

We are proud to announce our second group of scholarship recipients, and congratulate:

• Tiara Davis, Kennedy-King College
• Sedef Ozbay, Harold Washington College
• Alleya Williams, Wabash Valley College

Photos from the 2026 Community College Scholarship Winners Awards Brunch can be viewed here.

Photos from the 2025 Community College Scholarship Winners Luncheon can be viewed here.

Please subscribe to Hektoen International and follow us on social media to be the first to learn of the next scholarship launch!

NEWS

Our current Steering Committee Chair, Cora Palmer from Northwestern Hospital  in early October received the highest honor given by the Academy of Medical Surgical Nursing at their national meeting in San Antonio for her outstanding service to the community: AMSN President’s Award which is their most prestigious award for outstanding leadership in Med-Surg nursing. As president, she commits to the benefit of the association and she dedicates much time, energy, and enthusiasm the nursing profession.

PAST EVENTS

July 23 2022 

Sit and sketch  with Sed Henderson       IMSS

August 19, 2022 

“Expressing Ourselves Through the Arts”   Alyssa Saklak   IMSS

October 15, 2022 

Irish Heritage Center 4626 N Knox Ave, Chicago, Illinois, 60630

Mary Ann McDermott, MSN, RN, EdD, FAAN  provided a book review of ” Ireland’s Loss Britain’s Gain Irish Nurses in Britian Nightingale to Millennium.“

October 21, 2022 

Sketch with Sed 

 International Museum of Surgical Science 1524 N Lake Shore Dr., Chicago, IL 60610

November 2, 2022

Pain: Lessons for our Future- Fireside Chat with Judith A. Paice, PhD, RN

International Museum of Surgical Science 1524 North Lakeshore Dr. Chicago, IL 60610

November 2,  2022- Free, virtual theater opportunity! 

The Nurse Antigone: American Association of Critical-Care Nurses

The Hektoen Institute for Medical Research and Child and Family Connections #9 has been part of the Illinois Early Intervention Program for over 20 years, consistently providing public awareness, child find efforts, provider recruitment and collaboration for children (ages 0-3) with disabilities and their families to enter the Illinois Early Intervention system. As an independent agency, CFC #9 provides all activities related to service coordination, parent liaison and transition activities for early intervention at no cost. CFC #9 serves the central-west region of Chicago, a population that is comprised largely of families falling within Federal poverty standards and the majorities served are minorities and medically underserved.

Appreciating the complexity of needs that stress the families in our service area, together, we have instituted a comprehensive model in our approach when we initially designed the structure of our program to integrate the experience of pediatrics, psychology, and social work to comprehensively address the medical, developmental, and social-emotional/interpersonal health of the children and families referred to our program.

Medicine and the Arts

Hektoen sponsored several lectures and symposia on the broader aspects of illness and medicine as reflected in the works of artists, such as:

• “Medicine on Canvas. Interactions between Art and Medicine” – in conjunction with the Martin D’Arcy Museum of Art, Loyola University Chicago (2004); and

• “Doctors, Artists, and Alchemists in Renaissance Europe” by Sally Metzler, Ph.D., Director, D’Arcy Museum of Art, Loyola University Chicago (2004).

The Morris T. Friedell Mentorship Program

Starting in 1993, Hektoen sponsored a mentorship program designed to encourage promising minority high school students to enter health science careers. Students were recruited from Chicago public schools (i.e., Kenwood Academy, Hyde Park High School and Whitney Young) and learned routine laboratory work and performed basic tests under the supervision of a staff member. It gave students an opportunity to interact with scientists, prepared them to make educational choices, and encouraged them to set career goals in the health sciences. Click here to read more about the program.

The Society of Medical History

This organization was founded in 1909 to foster an interest in the history of medicine. In 2005, when it became part of the Hektoen Institute, the Society was renamed to emphasize a broadening of interest to other aspects of the humanities. At its inception, it had 200 members and included many illustrious personalities and pioneers of American medicine.

Medical Ethics Project

The goal of this program was to help clinicians think through difficult ethical problems and to gain greater insight into practical solutions. To further this goal, the Hektoen Medical Ethics Project supported symposia on dilemmas in medical ethics; distributed books on ethics to medical students and physicians and conducted research on the impact of ethics in medicine. Projects included:

• Distribution of the books Hippocratic and Judeo-Christian Medical Ethics and Core Readings in Medical Ethics and Genetics to medical students; and

• Co-sponsoring the Symposium, “Human Dignity and Health Science (2008) at the University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Medicine.