In advance of the second annual Yale School of Medicine (YSM) Kalanithi Cup competition on May 4, 2025, Irvin Yi, the MD student representative for defending champion Yan House, stated, “Maybe I'm a bit biased, but as inaugural champions, the spirit surrounding the event feels just a bit stronger knowing we have something to defend this year!" Meanwhile, first-year MD student Serena Chi, who helped organize the event and is a member of Horstmann House, said, “In my absolutely unbiased opinion, Horstmann House has the strongest athletes—so I’m very excited to see how things play out!”
These comments reflect the playful competitiveness and camaraderie at the heart of the Kalanithi Cup. The event was launched last year—the inaugural year for the YSM advisory houses—with the goal of building community among and across degree programs and class years. Ignoring the soggy weather, about 200 YSM MD, MD-PhD, and Physician Associate (PA) program students, along with heads of advisory houses, PA advisors, and a number of house community and YSM affiliates, gathered on Harkness Lawn and in Café Med and Harkness Ballroom for this year’s spirited competition.
While the house names were finalized in October 2024, each still maintains its original color designation—Creed House (Blue), Hamburg House (Orange), Horstmann House (Purple), Palade House (Gold), Slayman House (Red), and Yan House (Green)—and the colors were on full display on May 4, with house members sporting team t-shirts and many waving colored flags.
Celebrating Paul Kalanithi
In welcoming remarks, Carlisle Topping—the Hamburg House MD student representative, who helped organize this year’s and last year’s competitions—explained how last year the student organizers decided to name the event and the actual cup that the winning house receives—a specially-engraved, trophy-like Mory’s cup— for YSM alumnus Paul Kalanithi, MA, MPhil, MD ’07, who died in 2015 at age 37. In addition to being a chance to have fun, Topping said, “this event is also to remember his legacy.”
Topping described how Deputy Dean for Education Jessica Illuzzi, MD, MS, had known Paul and his wife Lucy Kalanithi, MD ’07, when they were students, through her roles as Ob-Gyn clerkship director and as Lucy’s thesis advisor. Illuzzi then shared that Paul was one of the funniest students she had known, who came to the clerkship every day with a smile and brought a sense of camaraderie to his class. Illuzzi said she saw that camaraderie reflected among the students gathered for the day’s competition, who came from all different classes and degree programs. Illuzzi also encouraged students who had not yet read Paul’s impactful memoir, When Breath Becomes Air, to do so, describing how he shares his story of being a student, physician, and eventually a patient with a terminal illness. (Lucy finished the book for Paul after he died.) “Let’s celebrate him today, laugh, and have fun together. That’s what Paul would want for all of you,” Illuzzi said in closing.
Spirited competition
The next several hours were spent with teams having fun, competing against each other at Mario Kart, trivia, Smash Brothers, cornhole, tug-of-war, and Dodgeball, with other team members energetically cheering on the sidelines.
This year for the first time, the student organizers decided that a couple of activities that took place prior to May 4 would count towards determining the Cup winner. Specifically, an event where students went to the Yale New Haven Hospital Teaching Kitchen and learned about nutrition and made a cost-conscious healthy meal together (points were awarded based on participation), and the IRIS Run for Refugees, based on participation, money raised, and the fastest runners.
Late afternoon, the participants gathered as the results were tabulated. There was momentary excitement when Hamburg House team members realized Assistant Professor Jonathon Weber, MA, PA-C, the house’s PA advisor, had not signed in, and believed his presence gave them the extra point needed for victory, since teams received points for participation. But then it was discovered that one Hamburg House attendance sheet entry (“Woo Hoo!”) did not count. The results were so close, that Illuzzi and Associate Dean for Student Affairs John Francis, MD, PhD, had to conduct a recount of the attendance sheets, and determined that the 2025 Kalanithi Cup title would be jointly shared by the Hamburg and Palade Houses!
Camaraderie
The student organizers and house heads agree the Kalanithi Cup has successfully built camaraderie and enriches the advisory house system. Chi describes how it “allows students to cheer each other on and connect with classmates from other houses in a fun, informal setting, and serves as a reminder of the community we’re part of beyond academics.”
Associate Professor of Therapeutic Radiology Henry Park, MD, MPH, who is head of Horstmann House, agrees, stating, “The Kalanithi Cup fosters great camaraderie within each advisory house that spans members of all classes. It's a fun event that has something for everybody, with the shared goal of enjoying each other's company, while having an opportunity for some lighthearted competition.”
Similarly, Hannah Dorfman, the Hamburg House PA student representative, believes “the Kalanithi Cup is an amazing way to bring together the student bodies of the PA, MD, and MD-PhD students. With how busy we all are on a daily basis, it can certainly become difficult to find time to get to know the groups of students outside our individual programs and or even between the different class years.”
Echoing this view about connecting with other programs, Claire King, the Creed House PA student representative, says, “Since we don’t get to interact often, this is a great opportunity for us to get to know each other a bit better in the spirit of competition and intra-team collaboration.”
Reflecting more broadly at the development of the house system, Yi notes, “As we are trying to grow and integrate the house program into the YSM culture, the Kalanithi Cup is an incredible outlet to build house pride around—it really generates a sense of spirit and investment. I think that really carries over into other house events and community projects.” Looking forward, Topping says, “our goal is also to host additional community-focused events leading up to the Kalanithi Cup, to also build camaraderie with our affiliates and the broader New Haven community.”