Father and son become classmates

Their respective

Cody Schwartz (center) with his father, Chris, and his mother, Carolyn.

journeys through graduate school had included another coincidence–in the 2011 spring semester, they took the same environmental science course in the Gillings School of Global Public Health.

Since they were both taking courses in the School, Cody wrote in an email, “It was inevitable that we would run into each other at some point. The biggest surprise was that our assignments were mostly group-based and the groups were determined alphabetically. So naturally, two people with the same last name are going to be in the same group. “

The course was online, so they didn’t see each other regularly in class, but they were working together closely, if virtually. “I think that we worked well as a team, as I know his style and he knows mine,” Cody wrote. “Let’s just say we never turned in anything late.”

Chris Schwartz’s nature is more competitive than his son’s, according to Cody–“I’m a more laid back and big picture type”–and the younger Schwartz admitted he didn’t tell his father the grades he got (Cody, it should be noted, was awarded membership this year in Delta Omega, the public health national honor society, for his outstanding scholarship). But their different styles made for a good group dynamic.

Both father and son will be putting their education to work here in North Carolina. Chris works for GlaxoSmithKline in RTP as a marketing research manager, while his son is entering his first year of internal medicine residency at UNC Hospitals before beginning a diagnostic radiology residency. When asked about future plans, though, Cody mused that since “this course went so well, maybe we’ll think about starting a family business.”