UAMS Honors Two Students with Scheving, Marvin Awards

By Yavonda Chase

Natashia Piazza Bottoms, a third-year medical student at UAMS’ northwest Arkansas campus, received the Dr. Horace N. Marvin Award for 2015 for achieving the highest score on the United States Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE) Step 1, an exam more commonly referred to as “The Boards.”

Graham Logan McCracken, a first-year medical student, received the Lawrence E. Scheving Award for the 2015-2016 school year for earning the highest score in the human structure course, which includes aspects of gross anatomy, radiology, pathology, histology and surgery.

“In both cases, these awards represent exceptional academic excellence,” said David Davies, Ph.D., an associate professor in the UAMS College of Medicine’s Department of Neurobiology and Developmental Sciences, which presents both awards annually.

Bottoms, who is married to Jason Bottoms and is the daughter of Donald Piazza of Tontitown and Lisa Hollingsworth of Gloucester, Massachusetts, was presented with a framed certificate and $500 honorarium by Davies during a ceremony Dec. 4 on the Fayetteville campus. Her name was added to the plaque that hangs next to Marvin’s memorial bust in the UAMS Library.

“In addition to being a stellar student, Ms. Bottoms exhibits persistence, diligence and a sense of humility, which are traits often found in highly competent and caring physicians,” said Davies.

Bottoms said she initially didn’t think she had done that well on the exam, adding that “when I saw my actual score, I was sure at first that I had opened someone else’s score report.”

She said she was “extremely honored” to receive the Marvin Award.

“I know the caliber of students in my class and know that there are many of us who could have won this award,” she said. “I believe that doing well on the boards is part due to intelligence and hard work, but there is certainly an element of luck in it as well.”

The Scheving Award went to McCracken, son of Gail McCracken, M.D., a Little Rock pulmonologist who graduated from UAMS in 1981 and attorney Van McCracken. Davies presented McCracken with a framed certificate and monetary honorarium during a ceremony Dec. 21 in the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health building. His name was added to the Scheving Award memorial plaque.

“Mr. McCracken is smart, dedicated and modest about his accomplishments,” said Davies. “He is an excellent representative of the enthusiastic and hard-working students training to be physicians and surgeons at UAMS.”

McCracken said winning the award caught him by surprise.

“I had worked hard and was very pleased with my score, but I did not expect this award as I have so many brilliant classmates,” he said. “It was an honor to receive an award commemorating such an incredible person.”

The Marvin award was established with anonymous donations in 1985, the year Marvin retired after 43 years of service to UAMS. He was course director of Medical Microscopic Anatomy and was chair of the Department of Anatomy from 1958-1967, after which he served as associate dean for Academic Affairs.

The Scheving award was established on behalf of the late Lawrence E. Scheving, Ph.D., the first Rebsamen professor of anatomical science. He served as director of the gross anatomy course for 15 years and was a UAMS College of Medicine faculty member for 20 years until his retirement in 1990. Friends and colleagues who established the award in 2004 described Scheving as an outstanding teacher and researcher with an international reputation.