In 2006 the state approved a new medical school for UCF, and on Saturday the UCF College of Medicine will celebrate its 10th anniversary with fireworks and a one-of-a-kind culinary experience.

The event will run from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the medical education building in Lake Nona and feature stations of cuisine from Orlando’s top chefs and restaurants, as well as live entertainment from UCF’s talented students. Guests will commemorate the college’s past, celebrate its present and get a glimpse of its future.

“After a decade together, I am still continually amazed by what we can achieve when we work together,” said Dr. Deborah German, vice president for medical affairs and founding dean of the medical school. “Ten years ago, President Hitt’s vision was of a medical school that would serve our Central Florida community by offering the very best in medical education, research and patient care. Today that dream has become a reality.”

The medical school stands at the hub of an emerging Medical City that includes one of the nation’s largest VA hospitals, the VA’s national simulation center and Nemours Children’s Hospital. UCF’s medical students rank in the top quartile nationally in all measures of student performance. The college is unique nationally because of its almost 3,000 undergraduate and graduate students studying biomedical sciences. Through a partnership with Hospital Corporation of America, the medical school is growing residency programs at hospitals across Central Florida that will help alleviate the state’s physician shortage.

At the College of Medicine’s Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, researchers are developing collaborative approaches across disciplines, UCF and the community to treat many of the diseases that plague humanity, including cancer, cardiovascular, neurodegenerative and infectious diseases. The college now has three locations of UCF Health, its physician practice, where faculty physicians care for patients around the community.

“The next decade will see expanded growth in research and patient care,” German said, noting that UCF is working to establish a partnership academic teaching hospital in Lake Nona with HCA and intends to expand its partnerships throughout the community. “I can only imagine what we will accomplish together in our next decade.”

Tickets are still available for the event. Proceeds support all College of Medicine missions.