A Global Residency (Happy New Year!!!)

Hi everyone,

I’d like to forget parts of 2025. Like crashing my bike. Like having both Heide’s car and my car stolen in Montréal the day after Christmas. But my ribs have healed, I have a new helmet, and we’ll sort out our transportation.

2025 is leaving behind trouble that will linger into the new year. Like damage to the CDC and NIH, chaotic vaccine policy, and retreats on global health, the environment, and affordable health insurance. But if there’s one painful memory I’ll carry from 2025, it will be the way our country turned its back on immigrants, especially refugees, asylum seekers, and all those who dream of coming to America to flourish and contribute.

Many of you know I’m the grandchild of Eastern European Jews who fled antisemitism in Lithuania and Belarus in the early 20^th century. Had they stayed behind, they would have perished in the Holocaust like many of my cousins. My wife has her own immigrant story: her mother and father came here as Romanian refugees, left stateless and homeless after World War II.

Since our country’s founding, America’s generosity to immigrants has been repaid many times over in contributions to science, industry, the arts, and, of course, medicine. Immigrants uphold our country’s ideals. At our best, we don’t see America as a nation based on shared ethnicity or religion; rather, we share a belief in democracy, fundamental freedoms, equal rights, and the common good.

Our residency upholds these ideals. As a global program, we recruit talented young physicians from the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. Immigrants have made America, and our program, a powerhouse of opportunity and fresh ideas, fueled by resilience, courage, adaptability, diverse viewpoints, and an insatiable drive to contribute.

As we welcome 2026 with hope and courage, let’s renew our commitment to open doors. As we face the challenges of a new year, let’s harness the power of our diversity and shared devotion to health, science, education, and human rights.

Happy New Year, everyone. Tomorrow, we’ll be driving back to the U.S. (in rented cars).

Mark

P.S. What I’m reading:

• Why do people believe true things? By Dan Williams
• The Year in Review. I am so sorry. By Dave Barry
• Willpower Doesn’t Work. This Does. By Angela Duckworth
• Why We Fall for Narcissistic Leaders, Starting in Grade School By Adam Grant

P.P.S. Our Annual International Happy New Year Celebration:

• In my family for Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, we say in Hebrew שָׁנָה טוֹבָה וּמְתוּקָה (shana tovah umetukah aka. have a good sweet year!)

• Bailey Frohlich (PGY1)

• Farsi: !سال نو مبارک

• Bahar Ardestani (PGY2)

• Chinese: 新年快乐! + dumplings courtesy Mom and Grandma!

• Tiffany Vaughan (PGY1)

• At home, my family speaks Sinhala, one of the national languages of Sri Lanka. On New Years we greet each other with: සුහ අලුත් අවුරුද්දක් වේවා Phonetically: "Soo-bah Ah-loot Ah-woor-dook Way-wah"

• Sud Perera (PGY2)

• In Farsi: Wish you and your family a great year ahead!

• Arya Aminorroaya (PGY1)

• Puththandu Vazhthukkal (புத்தாண்டு வாழ்த்துக்கள்)! Tamil greeting for Happy New Year!

• Ramya Sampath (PGY3)

• Feliz año nuevo – Spanish and Allin wata kachun – Quechua

• Isabel Bazan (APD)

• “Mutlu Yıllar!” — that’s how we say Happy New Year in Turkish. You might hear a few different versions of this from other Turkish residents too!

• Nurefsan Sariipek (PGY1)

• Here’s what we say in Hindi: नव वर्ष की शुभकामनाएँ !! (Nav Varsh ki Shubh kaamnayein = good wishes for New Year).

• Shaili Gupta (APD)

• “Happy New Year” in Greek is “Καλή Χρονιά!”

• Spyridon Kostantinis (PGY3)
• Hosa varsada subhasayagalu! Happy New Years in Kannada! ಹೊಸ ವರ್ಷದ ಶುಭಾಶಯಗಳು!

• Niroop Rajashekar (PGY1)

• In Spanish: ¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

• Juan Cala Garcia (PGY2)

• My family says “Felice Anno Nuovo” (Italian), while we eat lots of lentils and 12 grapes each to bring in good luck for the New Year.

• Olivia Hofheinz (PGY1)

• I speak Marathi at home which is a central Indian dialect similar to Hindi. We say: Naveen Varshachya Shubechha or नवीन वर्षाच्या शुभेच्छा.

• Yesh Detar (PGY1)

• ¡En español! Feliz Año Nuevo🎄🎁

• Hector Lora Rodriguez (PGY1)

• In Tamil, we may say “இனிய புத்தாண்டு நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள்” (Iniya putthaandu nalvaazhtthukkal).

• Asanish Kalyanasundaram (PGY2)

• Most people say "Happy New Year" because of the colonial past. This is how we write in Hindi (formal version) नये साल की शुभकामनाएँ! Pronunciation: Naye saal ki shubh kaamnaye! Meaning: Happy New Year!

• Jasmine Saini (PGY2)

• In Turkish we say “Mutlu Yıllar!”

• Zeynep Zengin (PGY3)

• In Urdu we say, نیا سال مبارک ہو (Naya Saal Mubarak Ho)

• Ayesha Butt (PGY3)

• In Portuguese, we’d say “Feliz Ano Novo!”

• Anderson Woite (PGY2)
• We speak French in my household and wish each other a happy New Year with: Bonne Année!
• Emma Barry (PGY1)
• Puththandu Vazhthukkal (புத்தாண்டு வாழ்த்துக்கள்)! Tamil greeting for Happy New Year!
• Ramya Sampath (PGY3)
• In Arabic, we say: كل عام و أنتم بخير Translation: May you be well every year. Transliteration: Kol 'am wa antom bekhair.
• Abdelrahman Abushouk (PGY3)
• In my family we say, שנה טובה (Shana tova) in Hebrew.
• Tamar Kaminski (PGY2)
• We say "Saal Mubarak" in Gujarati to say "Happy New Year!"
• Akshay Patel (PGY1)
• French: Bonne Année! Arabic: عام سعيد (ʿām saʿīd)
• Renée Saliby (PGY2)
• In Arabic, we say سنة جديدة سعيدة which translates to “Happy New Year” or كل سنة وإنت بخير which translates to “May you be well every year”
• Gracia Fahed (PGY1)
• This is how we say “Happy New Year” in Persian: سال نو مبارک!
• Ashkan Abdollahi (PGY1)
• Here are a few from back home [in Ethiopia]: Amharic - መልካም አዲስ ዓመት; Oromiffa - Baga bara haaraa geessan; Tigrigna - ሩሑስ ሓዱሽ ዓመት
• Ahmed Ibrahim Ahmed (PGY3)