PRESENCE IN PRACTICE

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May 14, 2026

For information on admission to Notre Dame Prep, please click here.

How NDP alum Dr. Carly Joseph’s commitment to underserved patients reflects a mission of service that began long before medical school.

At the commencement ceremony for the Covenant Healthcare College of Medicine at Central Michigan University on May 8, 2026, Dr. Carly Joseph returned not simply as a physician, but as an example of what it means to carry a school’s mission forward.

A 2013 graduate of Notre Dame Preparatory School, Joseph addressed the graduating medical students with a message about the difference between achievement and presence. Medical training, she said, often teaches students to measure themselves by grades, exams, research and the constant pressure to prove competence.

But after years of caring for patients in primary care clinics, emergency departments and intensive care units, she has learned that what matters most is often something quieter.

“One of the first things I learned from my mentors in geriatrics,” she said, “is to ask your patients what matters most to them.”

That question has become central to the way she practices medicine.

A path toward underserved communities

Joseph graduated from CMU the college of medicine in 2023 and completed an additional year to earn a Master of Public Health degree at the University of Michigan, where she studied the effects of pandemic-related isolation on older adults.

She is now completing her third year of residency in internal medicine and geriatrics at Maine Medical Center. Later this year, she will begin work as an attending rural primary care physician in Delta, Colorado.

Her career path reflects the very communities she described in her address — patients in rural areas waiting months to see a primary care physician, people delaying cancer screening after losing insurance and refugees navigating healthcare systems that were never designed with them in mind.

“I wish I could tell you these are exceptions,” she told the graduates.

Her commitment to underserved communities is not a new direction. It is a continuation of the values that shaped her at NDP.

Foundations formed at NDP

As featured in IRISH magazine in 2015, Joseph’s years after high school already reflected a deep curiosity about people, service and the wider world.

At Michigan Technological University, she studied biomedical engineering and international Spanish. Her academic work took her to Valparaiso, where she immersed herself in language study, community and cultural exchange.

In that profile, she described how mountain sports taught humility, perseverance, risk assessment and adaptability — qualities that now clearly shape her work as a physician. She also credited Notre Dame Prep with helping her become well-rounded, developing leadership skills and forming the habits of service and community that have remained with her.

When presence becomes care

That connection between formation and vocation was especially visible in one of the most memorable moments of her commencement address.

Joseph described caring for a woman in her late 90s. At the end of a routine visit, Joseph apologized that she had not been able to do more. The patient’s daughter stopped her.

“What are you talking about? You have helped my mom feel so much more at ease with her situation,” she said.

Joseph said she had not cured anything or fixed every problem. But she learned that sometimes presence itself is enough.

Carrying the mission forward

That insight speaks directly to the mission NDP hopes to cultivate in its graduates: to see the dignity of every person, to accompany others in moments of uncertainty and to use one’s gifts in service of the common good.

Her closing words to the new physicians also speak beyond medicine.

“The audition is over,” she said. “You are exactly who your patients need.”

For Notre Dame Prep, Carly Joseph is another example of an alum living the school’s mission long after graduation — carrying compassion, presence and service into communities that need it most.

For information on admission to Notre Dame Prep, please click here.

Comments or questions? mkelly@ndpma.org

About Notre Dame Preparatory School
"At Notre Dame Prep, we inspire our students to become the best versions of themselves. We challenge them through an experience of academic excellence, focused on active, project-based learning. We invite them to explore a world of opportunities beyond the classroom. We guide them as they grow in spirituality within a community strong in its Catholic and Marist identity."

Notre Dame Preparatory School is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. Notre Dame Preparatory School's upper school enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame Prep's middle and lower schools enroll students in pre-kindergarten through grade eight. All three schools are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDP is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the National Association of Independent Schools. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School, visit the school’s home page at www.ndpma.org.