[MUSIC PLAYING] Please be seated. Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of the
graduating class of 2018, welcome to the Harvard
Medical School and Harvard School of Dental Medicine
Class Day Ceremony. Good afternoon to Dean Daley,
Dean Donoff, Dean Hundert, Dean Saldaña, Dr. Karchmer,
esteemed invited speaker Dr. Baer, fellow students, and to
you all our family and friends who have traveled from far
and wide to celebrate with us on this special day. And thank you to those
who couldn't be present but are cheering us
on via our livestream. My name is Kristan Scott. And together with Mary Tate,
Brad Segal, and Samuel Lee, we have the pleasure of serving
you as this year's graduation co-moderators. This afternoon, we celebrate
the accomplishments of 174 graduating medical
students and 34 graduating dental students. Good afternoon. My name is Mary Tate. And it has been a
pleasure to serve as one of your co-moderators. We wanted to begin this ceremony
by celebrating and thanking our loved ones who have
been our biggest supporters for 21-plus years of school. So I asked my classmates to
share a few of the reasons why they appreciate you. And this is what they said. Thank you to the siblings
who sat patiently as we vented and ranted
about our struggles. Thank you to the spouses
like Jessica Sullivan, who supported us with love,
care, and an actual source of post-college income. Thank you. To the children like
little Jack Smalley who has given us
excuses for study breaks and allowed us to learn the
infant milestones without even trying, we love you. To the single parents
who've worked full time to give their kids all the
opportunities in the world, we admire you. Thank you to the
parents who volunteered as financial advisers,
helping us navigate scary amounts of loan debt. To the moms and dads
who've driven hours to deliver us our
favorite home-cooked meals to fuel our studying, thank you. To the parents,
like the Avakames, who traveled from around
the world for the chance to give their children the
best opportunity at life, we hope this day makes
your sacrifices worthwhile. To the dads like
Thomas Jack who read all The Lord of the
Rings and every book James Harriot ever wrote aloud
to their elementary schooler, we appreciate you. To the moms who traveled
all the way from Zimbabwe to share this day
with your daughter, it means the world to us. To the brothers whose own
battles against illness have inspired our careers in
the art of healing, thank you. To the sisters, like
my sister Frances, who's read every personal
statement that I've ever written and listened to every
seed of every idea I've ever had and found a way
to make it better and to always support
me, thank you. To the moms, like my mom Cheryl,
who's traveled to every dorm, every apartment, every
house that I've ever lived in from college all
the way to medical school to help me get
settled in, thank you. And finally, I
want to acknowledge that days like today can often
be bittersweet for those of us with loved ones who are
no longer here with us. So for the brothers, like my
brother Eushia, the sisters, the parents, the
family and friends we love and miss so
deeply, thank you for being with us
in spirit today. And thank you for all the
love that you poured into us to help make this day possible. Welcome. My name is Brad Segel. It is an honor to serve
as one of your Class Day co-moderators. Today is a day of celebration. But I want to take a
moment to highlight an issue that unfortunately
many of the graduates are familiar with, the
Vandy washing machines. You see, in Vanderbilt Hall,
the dorm where most of us live in our first
year, sooner or later, everyone realizes that when
the washing machines say that they have one minute
left, it's not true. There are at least 8
to 10 minutes left. So you'll find yourself
in the laundry room in front of a
washing machine that says there's one minute
left, and you just stand there, watching
your clothes spin, minute after minute,
unsure what it all means. In retrospect, from the
frustration of the Vandy washing machine seems trivial. In fact, most of us probably
haven't thought about them in the years since we've
moved out of the dorms. But the reason why
bring them up today is to remind us how easy it
is to forget a problem simply because we don't
have to personally deal with it anymore. This ceremony marks a
transition to a new chapter of our professional training. First as interns, then as
residents, and one day as attendings, we can
expect to confront a whole new set of obstacles
from those we leave behind us. Yet with each
professional transition, we also gain a greater ability
to improve training for those who follow in our footsteps. And so tomorrow, after
we've celebrated our ascent up an important rung in the
ladder of medical education, we should take care to not
forget the obstacles we faced along the way. Thank you, and congratulations
to each and every one of you. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Samuel Lee. And it is a huge
honor to be serving as a co-moderator
for the Harvard School of Dental Medicine and
today's Class Day activities. Welcome to friends,
family, staff, and alumni. We all entered the
health care field to help and to heal people. From our days of
patient-doctor I, we learned the value
of the medical history. And while we did not provide any
treatment, many of our patients were helped by the mere
act of spending time with them, listening to them. Moving on to
patient-doctor II, we learned the physical exam,
where we listened to them in a different way, through
the valves of their hearts, through the depths
of their lungs. Then into third year, we
carried the responsibility of providing care
for our patients from cleaning teeth
to filling teeth and even so far as
to replacing teeth. Then on to our fourth year,
we continued providing care but on a much larger scale
and to more patients, whether through
comprehensive care or through global initiatives
to helping others. I would like all of
us to take a moment to contemplate all
of the people we've helped during our
budding careers. But I would like you to
consider for the moment that they have helped us
blossom into the professionals we've all aspired
to be since day one. In these last four
years, I've learned that constant self-reflection
is critical to our growth as lifelong students. While we may no
longer be students, we will still make
the occasional misstep and become our harshest critic. In that vulnerable
moment, we need to remind ourselves
that we human and forever learning,
improving, and growing. And these moments make
us better doctors. So be kind to yourself. I've seen all of my
classmates flourish more than I could ever believe. And it's incredible. I can't wait to see what
inspirational things you all do in the future. To our parents, our
patients, our faculty and mentors who taught us
to become professionals, to each and every
one of you, I want to say thank you on behalf
of the Class of 2018. It is a huge honor and privilege
to introduce our first speaker, Nisarg Patel. Nisarg was born and raised
in Chandler, Arizona, and subsequently completed
his undergraduate degrees at Arizona State University
with a bachelors of science in molecular biosciences
in biotechnology and a bachelor of arts
in political science. At HSDM, Nisarg has pursued
many of his passions, including but not limited to-- writing about health policy
for Slate Magazine, Stat News, and The Huffington Post;
delivery systems research in the Department of
Plastic and Oral Surgery at Boston Children's
Hospital; and even co-founding a digital
health company that went through the YCombinator. Nisarg is known
for his kindness, lighthearted
personality, and tenacity to complete any task at hand. Nisarg's path will
continue on to a master's in biomedical informatics
here at Harvard Medical School and then on to oral and
maxillofacial surgery. His remarks are
titled The Lucky Ones. Please join me in
welcoming Nisarg Patel. Thank you, Sam. Just one day after the Red
Sox won the 2013 World Series, I made my first visit to
Harvard and was fortunate enough to share that moment
with two of my classmates now sitting in the
rows in front of me. As I stepped foot onto the
quad, I felt different. Perhaps it was the stoic
marble of Gordon Hall, the sparkling glass of
the Research and Education Building, or the crisp
wind chilling the autumn air around a boy born and
raised in the scorching Arizona desert. Whatever it was, I was swept
off my feet, pulled into what felt like an academic Narnia-- a campus where raw
intellect and inspiration seep through the cracks of
every sidewalk, creativity permeated the windowsills, and
the aura of the institution itself felt inexplicably
magical as if anything, everything was possible here. The status quo was no longer
a barrier, it was a challenge. Here we were defining the
national debate on health care policy, leading the charge
in cancer immunotherapy, designing infrastructure
to fight infectious disease in the most remote
areas of the world, and pioneering the quest
to edit the human genome. We had an amalgam of ideas and
the logically idealistic notion that everything we did
would change the world. We were the lucky ones. Never had the words of the
late Steve Jobs rung truer in my mind. The ones who are crazy enough
to think that they can change the world are the ones that do. Four years later, it's an
honor to be standing here today among esteemed professors,
loving families, and the Class of 2018 and an enormous honor
to be speaking on its behalf. I'd like to thank our
families, partners, and friends for their unwavering
encouragement and support. There can be no
argument that you instilled in us a virtue
to carve new paths, steered us in the
right direction when we had to make tough
decisions under uncertainty, and offered both of your
hands to us when we were down. Thank you to our
faculty for inspiring us to continue our
pursuit of education beyond the walls of
this institution, exemplifying our school's
mission to treat patients with both science
and compassion, and bending over backwards
to help each of us pursue our goals and make
it onto this field today. As our class parts ways to
every corner of the country next month, I'd like to
share a few moments that have brought us together
over the past four years. The 34 of us at HSDM started
at the medical school in 2014 as the last guard of
the old curriculum-- the last class at HSDM
to spend two full years experiencing Harvard Medical
School to the fullest and belittling a flipped
classroom we would never know. After MCM with Dr.
Randy King gave us a false sense of
security, we weathered 8 hours a day of anatomy
lab while our medical school classmates were at
El Pelon satisfying their formaldehyde-induced
burrito cravings. And every cool Sunday night
in the spring, we as a class would gather in a dimly
lit TMEC Amphitheater to watch Game of Thrones,
although by each year's end, our mandatory meeting with
the financial aid office had us thinking about each
of our own game of loans. And who could forget that brief
week in the December of 2015 when we were renamed
to the Harvard Colgate School of Dental Medicine for
Harvard's very last and very best second-year show. Finally, we ended our
time in medical school with Dr. Shield's course on
the gastrointestinal system. I can now confidently
say that having learned how to do a hands-on
prostate exam, our class can uniquely
market ourselves as the only dentists
proficient at both ends. By third year, we had
reached a critical juncture in our training. Seeing our very own patients
with a high speed drill in between our
inexperienced palms felt like drinking
from a firehose. None of us were perfect,
although some of us perfed. But over the next two years,
thanks to our persistence, camaraderie, and
remote Axiom access, we not only learned how to see,
hear, and care for patients ourselves, but also draw
upon our newfound knowledge and experience to change
the practice and delivery of dental medicine. Our class grew dental education
and infrastructure in Rwanda, analyzed the intersection
of oral health and HIV in South Africa,
designed financial models to help Medicaid patients access
dental care in clinics rather than the emergency
room, and built software to educate thousands of
patients across the globe at the push of a button. As Harvard graduates,
we have the fortune of having a limelight shining
on our shoulders wherever we go. And an important
responsibility that comes with that illumination. We can and already have carved
a future of dental medicine in ways that have
eluded our predecessors. So while today is an
occasion for celebration, we shouldn't simply
rest on our laurels. We've made great
strides as students. Let's make leaps as doctors. People say that you become
the average of those you spend time with most. And after spending hundreds
of thousands of dollars literally putting my
money where my mouth is, I couldn't imagine a better
group of people to my old me into who I am today. Congratulations, Class of 2018. I'll miss you. Thank you, Nisarg. Our next speaker,
Andreas Mitchell, is from Ellicott City, Maryland. Andreas attended
Washington University in St. Louis, where he
studied anthropology. He is graduating with an MD and
a master's in public policy. As a student at the Harvard
Kennedy School of Government, he was named Zuckerman
Fellow at the Center for Public Leadership. Andreas is passionate
about primary care and the intersection between
mass incarceration and health. He co-chaired the Student
Leadership Committee of the Center for
Primary Care and served as a member of the board
of the Academic Consortium on Criminal Justice Health. He also founded
the Harvard chapter of Citizen Physicians, a
national organization promoting civic engagement in the
health care community. Andreas will
continue his training in the internal medicine primary
care program at San Francisco General Hospital
through UCSF, where he hopes to launch a career in
primary care and social justice advocacy. His remarks are entitled
Beyond Clinical Uncertainty. Please help me welcome Andreas
Mitchell to the podium. Mary, thank you so much
for that kind introduction. And good afternoon to
everyone here today, especially my
graduating classmates in the class of 2018. We made it! Now even though we get to
wear the fancy caps and gowns, we can't let that fool us into
thinking that we made it here by ourselves because
we have been uplifted by outstanding teachers and
advisers, our phenomenal ORMA and Student Affairs offices,
our dedicated administrators, and an unbelievable group of
people committed to making sure that we can learn
in buildings that are clean and secure
and well-maintained and with cutting-edge
technology that one day I'll understand how to use properly. We also owe so much to our
mentors who have guided us, to our friends and
to our partners who have supported us and cared
for us after our toughest days at the hospital, and above
all, to our parents and family members who have been there
since our earliest days and to whom we feel more
gratitude than we can possibly express. Let's thank everyone who's
sharing in this achievement with us here today. Now our friends and
family who are here today can attest to just
how much we've learned since starting medical school. I remember coming home for
my first Thanksgiving break. It was November 2013. And I was pretty
excited to show off what I had learned in MCM,
our molecular biology course. But instead, I sat down
to the dinner table and was immediately
greeted by family members reaching over showing me rashes
on forearms, arthritic knees, tennis elbow, and
asking questions like is, it normal to
have pain down there? I did what I had
been taught and said, that must be hard for you. But beyond that, I
didn't have much to offer but a monologue on the molecular
binding pocket of Gleevec. You know, back then,
I dreamed about what it would feel like to
graduate from Harvard Medical School knowing the answers
to all of these questions. And even though I
have started to get the hang of some
rashes and joint pain, I never really imagined
the uncertainty that I'd still be
feeling right now. And actually, I'm
not really talking about clinical uncertainty. I think over the
last four years, we've learned that we can combat
that by learning medicine. We've seen so many rashes and
studied so much dermatology that we actually have
something intelligent to say when Aunt Linda reaches over
and shows us her forearms. I think what I'm describing
more of is something beyond clinical uncertainty. It's an uncertainty
about what's happening with the landscape in medicine
and society in general and whether we're going to
have any power to change that. We're wondering
whether we should expect to confront as much
burnout in our careers as our predecessors. We're wondering how many
more patients experiencing homelessness we have
have to discharge from the hospital to the street
before more stable housing is made available. And outside of
medicine, it's hard not to internalize
the uncertainty of our current political
state and what's going on in terms
of mass shootings when we're working in
hospitals and internalizing some insecurity
around that, as well. And so I ask myself, if
learning medicine is the way to overcome clinical
uncertainty, then what's the key
to surmounting this beyond clinical uncertainty
and feeling of powerlessness? You can't study your way into
a safer and healthier society. In fact, there's almost
nothing you can do alone to change the most
entrenched issues affecting us and our patients. Instead, I've actually
learned that the way to overcome this uncertainty
and feeling of powerlessness is to stand together. I'd like to share the
story of one patient who taught me this principle. To protect his
privacy, I'll call him Mr. D. Mr. D was a lovely
gentleman in his 80s. He was kind and energetic. And I watched him during
the day drinking protein shakes religiously because he
was determined to fight back against the esophageal
cancer that had taken so much weight from him. Now there actually was
not that much uncertainty in terms of the day-to-day
management of his cancer. We were doing everything
that we could. But just as certain was that
he needed palliative care to maintain his dignity and
comfort near the end of life. He needed to spend time
with family and friends and take steps to maintain
meaning and purpose, things we would all want for our
parents and grandparents. And had this been an
ordinary hospital, I could have helped
arrange that for him. But this was not an
ordinary hospital, this was the infirmary of a
maximum security prison where Mr. D was sentenced to
spend the rest of his life in that eight foot
by eight foot cell. I felt uncertain of how to
give this patient the care that he needed because what he
needed was not to be in prison. At the time, it was
impossible to offer this to him because Massachusetts
was one of only four states that did not allow any kind
of compassionate release for patients like
Mr. D. But in what I feel is an act of heroism
that Mr. D will never know, 15 students, many of
whom are here today, decided to change the law
to stand up for my patient. Over a whirlwind
several months, we organized dozens of
students and physicians to advocate for a
compassionate release bill. And to our surprise, we won. The law passed, including
special language that we had written to
include patients like Mr. D. Something that had seemed
insurmountable for my patient in September was signed into
law by the governor in May. And I learned that the
solution to this beyond clinical uncertainty,
these barriers, was to stand together. Now some of you might be
skeptical about conclusions drawn from an n of 1. So you should know
that there are actually countless examples of these
kinds of organizing victories in the medical community. At the trainee level,
residents across Boston just organized in order to
access a state database that will help them take better care
of patients with opioid use disorder. And at the attending
level, many of us know that Doctors for America
joined 15,000 physicians together to advocate for health
reform, an effort so successful that their leader was
named Surgeon General. The average person
in these groups made no extraordinary
contribution, but the shared output
was tremendous. Organized, small steps
of everyday heroism, like 15 of you took
for Mr. D, have changed the landscape of our society. I'm reminded of what Max Ehrmann
wrote in his beloved poem "The Desiderata"-- "many persons strive
for high ideals, and everywhere, everywhere
life is full of heroism." In five years here, I've
known no greater privilege than to meet everyday
heroes everywhere I've looked here at HMS,
across Boston, and truly around the world. As we leave here,
let us continue to take small steps
in unison that can have heroic outcomes for our
patients and our communities. Thank you so much. Thank you, Andreas. It is now my pleasure to
introduce our final student speaker today, Elorm Avakame. Elorm Avakame is originally
from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Prior to coming to
Harvard Medical School, he attended Rutgers
University for college as a public health major. In addition to graduating
from Harvard Medical School, he's receiving a
Master's in Public Policy from the Harvard John F.
Kennedy School of Government as a Sheila C. Johnson
Leadership Fellow at the Center for
Public Leadership. Elorm will now be a
pediatrics resident at the Children's National
Health system in Washington DC. He is passionate about
issues affecting teens of color in urban communities. His experience and
this work has ranged from a role with
an urban nutrition nonprofit in West Philadelphia
to the Harvard Health Professions Recruitment and
Exposure program, a mentorship and youth development program. The title of his talk
is What We Should Always Remember About This Day. Please join me in
welcoming Elorm Avakame. Standing here
today, I can't help but think about the
very first time I stood on this quad, my interview day. The people were smiling. The grass was
perfectly manicured, much like it is today. The sun was shining off of
all the marble around me. And I was terrified. I knew that there was no
chance that I would get into Harvard Medical School. In fact, I was
just happy to have been able to see this
place with my own two eyes. And then I remember the day that
we got those acceptance emails. I remember feeling like my
brain had short circuited. It was like-- I put my head in my hands
and the only English words I could remember how to say
were, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh over and over. And I know that most of us had
similar stories of freaking out that day because you've
shared those stories with me over the years. We were in such
complete shock at having been accepted to
Harvard Medical School because we didn't truly
believe that we would be. And yet here we are
today as graduates. Look, we didn't just make it in. We made it out. As I've tried to think about
what this day means about what I want us to think about
every time we think back to this day about what I want
us to remember every time we see our diplomas on the
wall, it's this-- we are capable of more
than we can even imagine. It was true on
our interview day. And it's true today. We, each of us as
individuals and collectively as a graduating class, are
capable of more than we can even imagine right now. Look, don't take
that the wrong way. I don't mean for us to walk
around thinking that we alone have the answers to all the
world's problems because we don't. But in a world that
is so quick to tell us that the ideas we have are too
grand, that the visions we have are too bold, that the plans
we have are just unrealistic, I want us to remind ourselves
today that they're not. I want us to hold on to
our ability to dream. Think of everything
that we've accomplished in a few short years here. And imagine
everything that we'll do in the next several decades. We're gathered here today
to celebrate the things that we've done. And they are many. But I'm so excited to imagine
the things that we will do, can do, and will do. But even as we celebrate, I want
us to remember why we're here. We became doctors not
just for our own sake but because we wanted to make
other people's lives better. We didn't do this for
respect or prestige. Our mission is to serve. There is great power
in our platform. But I once heard it said
that with great power comes great responsibility. You see, it's important
not just that we do well but that we do good. And when I say that we can do
more than we can even imagine, what I really mean is
that we can do more for others than we can imagine. Somewhere out there
there are young people who won't stay young forever. And as they grow
old, they'll need doctors who can care for
their body and their soul. Looking out across
this class today, I am so proud to say that
those doctors are on the way. Somewhere there are
children struggling with a rare condition
who need scientists that can crack the
code of their disease and find treatments
that bring healing. Today I say those
scientists are on the way. Across this nation and
indeed across the world, there are communities
struggling with poor health who need servants that will
combine their clinical training with their expertise
in public health and public policy and
business and education, working to solve the challenges
those communities face. Today I say to them hold on. Those servants are on the way. Now I don't mean to pretend
that the road ahead of us will be easy
because it won't be. There will be more
challenges, greater challenges than we can anticipate. We will make mistakes,
personal and professional. I have made my
fair share of them. And I know I'm not
done making them. But even when the bumps in
the road feel like boulders, remember that your
mission is worth it. Some of us may not live to see
our visions come to fruition. I'm reminded now of the
first black students ever to come to Harvard Medical
School wanting to study medicine and become healers-- Daniel Laing, Isaac
Snowden, Martin Delaney-- in the spring of 1851,
their admission was revoked. And they were expelled
from Harvard Medical School at the request of a petition
organized by their classmates and approved by their
faculty and their dean. I want to share a few words from
that petition if I can today. It reads, "we cannot consent
to be identified as fellow students with blacks whose
company we would not keep in the streets and whose society
as associates we would not tolerate in our houses." You see, Daniel,
Isaac, and Martin, they never lived to
see a day like today when 16 black students would be
graduating from Harvard Medical School and 4 of them would be
speaking from this very podium. The three of them
have long passed on, but they still have
something to say to us today. And their message to
us today is this-- run your leg of the
race and run it hard. Remember that your
mission is worth it. I'll close by saying
that I'm sharing these words on this day, but
they're not for this day. No, they're for a day
that's to come somewhere down the road when
the challenges begin to feel too great, when the
doubt begins to creep in, when you begin to
wonder whether you bit off more than you
could chew and whether you were crazy for trying. When that day comes-- and it will-- but it when
it comes, take a moment, close your eyes, and think back
to today, this day, the day that we achieved
our wildest dreams and became the Harvard
Medical School and Harvard School of Dental
Medicine Class of 2018. Thank you. God bless you, and
congratulations. Thank you, Elorm. Many hands go into orchestrating
the ceremony, so at this point, we would like to recognize
some of the individuals who helped make today possible. First, we'd like to recognize
our fellow classmates who, in the midst of
clinical rotations, far-flung travel, and finding
housing for next year, dedicated their time and energy
into everything from organizing a flea sale to writing our oath. A huge thank you to Horatio
Thomas, Julie Gonzales, Michael McDowell, Connie
Shi, LeAnn Delasdela, Rebecca McCrae, Joseph
Rosenthal, Keenan Mahan, Frank Conyers, and Nicole Perlman. A heartfelt thank you
to the Aesculapian Club for the generosity you've
shown our class over the years from purchasing our
white coats on day one to funding a graduation
boat cruise for our class earlier this week. On behalf of the Class
of 2018, thank you. A sincere thank you to the
two deans for students that we've known during our
tenure at Harvard, to Dr. Nancy Oriol for warmly
welcoming us to a vibrant campus community and to Dr. Fidencio
Saldaña for shepherding our class through graduation. And of course,
this day would not have been possible without
our incredible staff members-- Lisa Derendorf, Csilla Kiss,
Anne Hudson, Karrol Altarejos, Patty Cunningham, Claudia
Galeas, Denise Brown, Marcia Feldman, Barbara Sweeney,
Carla Fujimoto, Kara Dalton, and everyone in the
Office of Student Affairs. Since we arrived at
Harvard Medical School, we felt supported and
encouraged throughout all of our endeavors. We could not have
done it without you. We appreciate you, and we
cannot thank you enough. And finally, we would like
to give a special and sincere thank you to Rosa Soler. Rosa, would you mind
joining us on stage? Rosa undertook the
Herculean effort of orchestrating every
aspect of today's events. Your dedication to the personal
and professional development of our students is
truly inspirational. On behalf of the
entire student body, I could not be more
thrilled to congratulate you on your appointment as the new
Director of Student Affairs. Thank you. Thank you, Brad. If I could ask our award
winners from the Harvard School of Dental
Medicine to please come up to the stage
on the left here. Each year graduating students
from the Harvard School of Dental Medicine
nominate and select two faculty members
and one staff member to receive the Outstanding
Faculty and Outstanding Staff awards. This year, we also decided
to nominate a resident as well that put in significant
effort to teach our class and will be graduating
with us today. I am truly honored to present
the four award recipients. If I could have the recipients
please make your way to the stage. The first Outstanding Faculty
Award goes to Peter Greco. Dr. Peter Greco is a wonderful
professor and a true advocate for his students. His genuine interest in
prosthodontics and patient care are unparalleled. He is well-known among the
students for his dedication to teaching and his
ability to connect with us and our patients. Dr. Greco has supported us
throughout dental school from head neck dissections to
prepping our first typodont tooth to delivering
our first crown. He works tirelessly as an
instructor in the clinic and can often be found
with a trail of students following behind him. Dr. G can also be
found helping students on complex cases and
lab work after hours in the preclinical laboratory-- and they're not always
relegated to dentistry, as you can often hear the group
talking about sports, Ramen, current events, or even
pop culture references. Thank you, Dr. Greco. Our second Outstanding
Faculty Award goes to Supattriya Chutinan. Dr. Chutinan is truly
a remarkable teacher. Dr. Chutinan is optimistic
and motivated to continually improve the student and patient
experience here at HSDM. She is patient, kind,
and helpful to all and motivates us to strive
for excellence while lending her support along the way. From waxing our first
tooth to placing our first complex amalgam
to managing patients with rampant
caries, Dr. Chutinan has joined us
throughout our journey in becoming
competent clinicians. It is not uncommon to see
Dr. Chutinan late at night helping students
master the drill or working on
creative lesson plans to help us understand the
foundations of dentistry. She has imparted her knowledge
of cariology and minimally invasive treatment, influencing
the way we approach dentistry. Regardless of how
obscure our questions about restorative
dentistry are, Dr. Chutinan likely has an answer and
can point us to a paper to reinforce the concept. Thank you so much, Dr. Chutinan. Our outstanding resident
award goes to Theodore Tso. With a quick wit, Dr.
Tso is able to engage students and patients alike
in his teaching methods. With his encouragement
and consistent support, students have gone
from learning how to do cavity preparations to
designing partial dentures. Few go above and beyond to help
students in tutorials, clinic, and after hours,
but Dr. Tso always makes them available to teach
and give feedback and consults whenever needed. Dr. Tso embodies the spirit of
a true professional-- ethical, responsible, and knowledgeable. As dental students, we
admire his dedication to not only help us
but, more importantly, provide the highest quality
of care to our patients. As a result of his
strong character, he follows every student's
case to completion. He reminds us to
not only achieve excellence in our
prosthodontic work, but also find creative,
conservative, and practical ways to care for our patients. We wish him the best
of luck in his career. And we are confident
that his dedication to patients in the field of
dentistry will take him far. Unfortunately, Dr. Tso
could not be here today, so I'll be accepting
his award on his behalf. This year's outstanding staff
award goes to Charles Mwele. There are no words
to fully describe Charles's impact on HSDM. We would not have survived
our third and fourth years of dental school without him. His dedication to student
learning and success is unparalleled. No matter what
situation we're in, Charles was always there for us. When that denture seemed
destined for failure, Charles was there with a smiling
face and a positive attitude. He teaches with patience
and understanding as we struggle to surmount
steep learning curves. He takes his time
to guide our hands and share techniques to
mastering any laboratory procedure. We could not have navigated
dental school successfully without his support. We will miss passing Charles
in the hallway and undoubtedly hearing, hey, how are you? We thank Charles from
the bottom of our hearts and for being our teacher, lab
technician, mentor, and friend and for being a bright light
during this challenging dental school journey. Unfortunately, Charles
could not be here today. So I'll be accepting
the award on his behalf. Please join me in
congratulating all four winners. Congratulations to the
HSDM award winners. Now we will present the awards
for Harvard Medical School. Could all the HMS
award recipients make their way to the
side of the stage? First, we would
like to recognize one outstanding resident. Residents are asked to
manage a full patient panel, maintain an enthusiasm
for their own education, and somehow teach medical
students something. This resident found a way to do
that all seemingly with ease. One student said, what
made her stand out to me is that she made
my learning experience a priority to her. Whenever an attending asked
her to perform a task that was within my skill
set, she'd say, our medical student can do it. The winner of the
outstanding resident award is Dr. Ukachi Emeruwa, a senior
resident in the MGH Brigham combined OB/Gyn program. Congratulations again. Now we would like to present
the Harvard Medical School Class of 2018 faculty awards. As soon as we
announce your name, please make your way on
stage to receive your award. Among the distinguished
committed faculty, these men and mostly
women have stood out as uniquely passionate
and effective educators, embodying the best of what
medical education has to offer. Dr. Yael Heher-- Dr. Heher is receiving
the award for Excellence in Preclinical Instruction. Dr. Yael Heher is a renal
pathologist and the director of Quality and Patient Safety
in the Department of Pathology at the Beth Israel Deaconess
Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. She served as one
of the instructors in our first-year
physiology course. One student remarked she is
known amongst HMS students as someone who not only
makes renal pathology approachable but also fun. She is a gifted educator. And we are thankful for her
dedication and enthusiasm for our learning. Congratulations, Dr. Heher. Dr. Priscilla Brastianos-- Dr. Brastianos is receiving
the award for Excellence in Clinical Instruction
in Neurology. Dr. Brastianos is
in the divisions of hematology oncology
and neuro-oncology at the Mass General Hospital. She is an assistant professor
in medicine at Harvard Medical School and the director of
the Central Nervous System Metastasis Program at the Mass
Gen. Dr. Brastianos's research focuses on understanding
the genomic mechanisms that drive brain tumors. And she was most recently
named and next gen star by the American Association
for Cancer Research. In addition to being
an excellent clinician and researcher,
students have recognized her to be a fantastic educator. One student said
of Dr. Brastianos she was the first physician
I met who actually he was gentle, encouraging, and
supportive while also holding extremely high
expectations for us. Please join me in
congratulating Dr. Brastianos. Dr. Laura Avery-- Dr. Avery is receiving
the award for Excellence in Clinical Instruction
in Radiology. Dr. Avery is an
emergency radiologist at Mass General Hospital. As the MGH clerkship
director in radiology, Dr. Avery is committed to
radiology medical student education. One student said, Dr.
Avery's infectious enthusiasm for the field of
radiology is felt by all students, those
choosing to pursue radiology or completing their
core rotation. She makes the learning
experience enjoyable. Congratulations, Dr. Avery. Dr. Alex Keuroghlian-- Dr. Keuroghlian is receiving
the award for Excellence in Clinical Instruction
in Psychiatry. He's an assistant
professor here at Harvard. And he directs the national
LGBT Health Education Center. A student nominee said that
his mentorship is characterized by exceptional and
thoughtful guidance tailored to the specific goals
of the students. This student noting that though
Dr. Keuroghlian was outside of his specialty
area of interest, he quickly became one of his
strongest mentors at Harvard. Congratulations. Dr. Fabienne Bourgeois-- Dr. Bourgeois is receiving
the award for Excellence in Clinical instruction
in Pediatrics. She's a pediatric hospitalist
at Boston Children's and an instructor in
pediatrics here at Harvard. One student nominee
said Dr. Bourgeois made it clear that
she was personally invested in my
education by taking time to discuss my individual goals,
setting clear expectations to help me achieve those
goals, and regularly checking in on my progress. She cared about me not
only as a student trying to learn pediatrics, but
also as a human being by showing a sincere interest
in my personal well-being and other passions and
interests outside of medicine. She served as an
exceptional physician role model who cared not only about
the medicine-related issues of her patients but also the
complex psychosocial aspects of their care that often
went unnoticed by others. Congratulations. Dr. Yvonne Gomez-Carrion-- Dr. Gomez-Carrion is receiving
the award for Excellence in Clinical Instruction in
Obstetrics and Gynecology. Dr. Gomez-Carrion
practices at the BIDMC and is an assistant
professor of OB/Gyn and the director of the OB/Gyn
resident surgical service. Anyone that has worked with
Dr. Yvonne Gomez-Carrion knows what it means
to enter the YGC zone. In her operating
room, she always manages to create a safe,
supportive environment in which learning happens at all
levels, from the residents to medical students. Thank you Dr. Gomez-Carrion. Dr. Hiroko Kunitake--
Dr. Kunitake is receiving the
award for Excellence in Clinical
Instruction in Surgery. Dr. Kunitake is a colorectal
surgeon at the Mass General Hospital and an assistant
professor of surgery. One student wrote, Dr.
Kunitake is the most skilled at making the medical student
feel like a valued member of the team. She made it clear from
the beginning of our time together that she thought my
contribution to patient care was important,
which encouraged me to take on more responsibility
and enhanced my learning. Above all, she demonstrated
kindness and empathy toward every member of the
team, as well as her patients. Working with her as a medical
student was a true privilege. Dr. Kunitake, congratulations. Dr. Kerry Reynolds-- Dr. Reynolds is receiving
the award for Excellence in Clinical Instruction
in Internal Medicine. Dr. Reynolds is an oncologist at
Massachusetts General Hospital. As one student shared,
when microaggressions emerged on the wards related
to being a woman in medicine, she handled them with
kindness and grace. She taught me to navigate one of
my most challenging experiences on the wards and talked to a
young patient and his family about his prognosis. As another student
wrote, Dr. Reynolds embodies what I strive
to be as a physician. Congratulations. Dr. Trevin Lau-- Dr. Lau is receiving the
Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award. Dr. Lau is an obstetrician
and gynecologist at the Massachusetts
General Hospital. One student wrote that Dr.
Lau is a fierce advocate for student learning
and expertly provides productive, rigorous,
constructive criticism that helps students grow
as physicians in training. Dr. Lau, congratulations. Dr. Matthew Tobey-- Dr. Tobey is receiving the
Leonard Tow Humanism Award. In addition to serving as an
internist and associate program director for the Rural Health
Leadership Program at MGH, Dr. Tobey is the faculty
director of the Crimson Care Collaborative at Nashua Street
Jail, as well as a clinic preceptor. In these roles, as
one student wrote, Dr. Tobey has taught many
students about the role health care providers play in
advocating for social justice and working with a tremendously
vulnerable and underserved population. He teaches culturally
competent care through example. Congratulations. And Jessica Halem-- Jessica is receiving the Harvard
Medical School Student Life Award. After joining the
school in 2014, Jessica established and then
led the first-ever LGBT Office at HMS. She's united resources across
Harvard's affiliated hospitals and Fenway Health to provide
HMS students with opportunities for mentorship, leadership,
and professional development. While serving as the program
director for the LGBT Office at HMS, Jessica became so
involved with medical students that she was also hired by
our Office of Student Affairs. She spearheaded
outreach to current and admitted LGBT students. In 2014, 7 admitted students
self-identified as LGBT on their applications. This year, it was 23
admitted students, a testament to the
community Jessica has helped foster at HMS. Please join me in
congratulating her. It's now my honor and privilege
to introduce the Harvard Medical School Class of 2018
commencement speaker, Dr. Neal Baer. Dr. Baer is a pediatrician
and distinguished television writer. He was the executive
producer of Law & Order-- SVU for 11 seasons, a series
that received 6 Emmy awards. Previously, Dr. Baer was
writer and producer of ER for the first seven
seasons of the hit series, earning a total of
seven Emmy nominations. Dr. Baer's network
television career began in 1988 when he wrote for
China Beach, a dramatic series about nurses in Vietnam. He then received a master's
degree in sociology from Harvard, where he
studied family policy. Dr. Bear then matriculated
at Harvard Medical School, where, between his fourth-year
clinical rotations, he spent his time in Los
Angeles writing for ER. After graduating
in 1996, Dr. Baer completed his
internship in pediatrics at Children's
Hospital Los Angeles. He graduated magna cum
laude from Colorado College and holds an additional
master's degree in education from Harvard. Throughout his career, Dr.
Baer has combined his passion for medicine and storytelling
to challenge audiences on a spectrum of topics. As just one
illustration, since 2006, he's worked in South
Africa and Mozambique teaching photography
to mothers with HIV so that they can tell
their stories to the world. Among his many other
positions, Dr. Baer was also recently appointed
to the Board of Fellows at Harvard Medical School. For his remarks titled What
Happens, please join me in welcoming Dr. Neal Baer. Thanks so much. And thanks for the
inspiring stories that the medical and
dental students told. So what matters to you? What keeps you up at night? What situations distress you? What brings you deep joy? And what fills you with sorrow? What scares you? And what inspires you? What gave you the dream
of becoming a doctor? And how will you make
that dream matter? You freshly minted
physicians are valiant. Over these past
four years, you've been given a profound
gift, the art of compassion and the science of healing. Who better to use these
gifts to lead the change and charge for social justice? As you begin your
practice of medicine, you must never forget
that health care is a fundamental right that
reflects the very essence of our humanity. When we strip away
that right, we wound our ability to
care for one another. We lose our greatest
and uniquely human quality, empathy. And the world turns
bitterly cold. Health care is not
merely a service. Health care is not a
commodity reserved only for those lucky enough
to be able to pay top dollar for the best
that medicine has to offer. People will place their lives
and trust, their present pain and future joy in your hands. What could matter more? Now it's time for you to go
out and gather experience. You've been fortified with an
armamentarium of studies, data, and a tour of the human
body and all the pathology and disease that can assault it. You've memorized pharmaceuticals
and the Krebs cycle, though I doubt you all
relied on mnemonics as much as we did 20 years ago. Some days, I wake
up repeating "want my hot dog," the mnemonic
for substances crossing the placenta or "a wet bed"
to illustrate kidney function. A-- maintaining acid
base balance; W-- maintaining water balance; E--
electrolyte balance; T-- toxin removal. One has to admit
that in some odd way, these provocative
memory boosters told stories we'd not soon forget. Perhaps that's why they worked. My white coat pockets were
crammed with index cards and small spiral notebooks. Now you have an app
that can instantaneously give you any fact you need
along with illustrations-- Harrison's Principles
of Internal Medicine on your iPhone. I don't know if I
should weep or cheer. And yet with all your
tools, all your knowledge, all your personalized
medicine, immunotherapy, cutting-edge stem cell
treatments, and CRISPR, 40% of adult Americans-- 40%-- are obese. When I graduated just a
little over 20 years ago, that number was
slightly over 15%-- a staggering increase. And the type 2 diabetes
rate, well, that skyrocketed since I was
sitting where you are. An opioid abuse and
addiction, that's something that
was certainly seen but not in the deplorable
numbers of today. I'm not painting a
rosy picture because with 70% of our adult
population obese or overweight, you, my new MDs, have
your work out for you. And it's not just here. Obesity, arguably the biggest
health crisis we face, is spinning out of
control around the globe. How did this happen with
all the bioinformatics, translational science, and
genetic breakthroughs that have occurred, many
of them right here at our medical school? I stepped into a
tutorial last year and heard third-year
students struggling to help their patients
with metabolic syndrome, an insidious combination
of hypertension, obesity, and type 2 diabetes. These students were frustrated
over their patients' poor compliance with
taking their medications. Why is helping our patients
live healthier lives often so difficult? I believe one of
the reasons obesity is on the rise is because of
the powerful narratives that are constantly bombarding us in
advertisements, on billboards, in restaurants, and in stores. Coca-Cola tells consumers
to open happiness. And the CEO of Pepsi talks of
designing Doritos for women with a lighter crunch that
leave no flavored residue on the fingers because
she notes women don't like to crunch loudly or
lick their fingers in public the way men do. Next on her corporate
research agenda she says is this driving question,
quote, "how can you put Doritos in a purse
because women love to carry a snack in their purse?" 46% of the sugar
consumed in the US is in sugar-sweetened beverages. 25% of our daily calories
come from snacks. And 61% of the foods we
buy are highly processed. Is it any wonder
that our country is facing an obesity pandemic? And yet, these
disturbing figures seem to have had little impact
on the food and beverage choices we make. You may be asking yourselves
why we pay so little attention to these data that warn us of
an impending health catastrophe. Is it just that
we're overwhelmed by all these numbers? Nevertheless, a big
part of your job will be to treat diseases that
afflict so many people who are obese or overweight,
often because they overconsume these foods that are inexpensive
and constantly promoted. What is your role in promoting
your patients' health? Should you speak up? And if, so how? And will it matter? I think these things
matter deeply. When a person is not
healthy, he or she isn't able to live
life to the fullest. And millions of people
are not healthy. In fact, I think
that the inflammation so many individuals must
cope with on a daily basis may be contributing to
some of our political woes and the rancor people
express across the country. When you feel crappy, you often
act crappy or at least cranky. So this, of course,
is where you come in. How can you make a difference? What can you do? And in making a difference,
how can you care for yourselves and keep the
inflammation at bay? How can you enjoy your own lives
during this time of political, economic, and social upheaval? For me, and I think for you,
the answer lies in storytelling. I've been fortunate as
a producer and writer on television shows like
ER and Law & Order-- Special Victims
Unit to tell stories about the complex public
health issues facing us today from gun violence to
teen access to abortion, from vaccination to
fetal alcohol syndrome. Medical topics and health
policy issues such as these must be explored on
television dramas because dramas are a reflection
of the day-to-day struggles in our lives. Here we can dramatize the
messiness and conflicts inherent in the
practice of medicine and through characters'
beliefs and actions. How do I know that
stories make a difference? When we conducted a study with
the Kaiser Family Foundation on the impact of an
episode of the ER that dealt with
human papillomavirus as the primary cause of cervical
cancer, we were stunned. Before the show aired,
19% of the viewers knew that HPV is associated
with cervical cancer. After the show aired, that
number of rose to 60%. Our story made a difference. Changing behavior,
particularly when it comes to improving public
health, is challenging and, in light of the figures
I've cited, daunting. I've learned personally
and professionally that I can't change anyone's
behavior except my own. And that is really tough. Yes, court decisions and laws
that embrace social justice like Brown v. Board of Education
and the Affordable Care Act can change behavior
outwardly, but we must also find ways to promote
ethical self-efficacy. But how? Facts and figures
compiled in policy reports or medical journals
organize the world in ways that make it
possible for us to grapple with complex social
issues, but as the renowned social scientist
Paul Slovic has shown us, data do not drive our hearts. Consider as his research
so astutely demonstrates in "Psychic Numbing
and Genocide" that we as human
beings are moved not by the mass devastation
in Syria or Myanmar, but by the single child
desperately in need. Our brains are wired to
respond to the individual, not to the faceless crowd. Data do not drive our hearts. I think stories on TV and all
the other forms of storytelling captivate us because
we see our lives in the characters' struggles. We root for some,
loathe or love others. Stories are stand-ins for
our own fraught-filled lives. Stories about individuals are
what engage us, transport us, and can move us to take action. They shake us up, help us
to see other points of view through characters
we can identify with. Perhaps we begin to think about
things a little differently from the way we had
thought about them before. Perhaps we begin to
find common ground. Each of you has many
stories to tell of patients you will never forget. You will always remember
their valor, their dignity, their humor, their
determination, as well as their anger
and their defeats. You must tell their stories. Your patients will
suffer greatly from the consequences of their
own poor choices, habits, and actions. And it will be your
job to help them respond to those consequences
in healthier ways. Obesity, gun
violence in schools, lack of access to
good health care are too often hypocritically
explained away as unfortunate facts of life. We now live in this
bizarre fugue state of constantly trying to cope
with these unfortunate events rather than changing the
social structures, laws, and policies that allow them
to linger and metastasize. These are public
health problems. And there is a solution. And that is through
storytelling. I call the stories
that moved you, the stories that will
stay with you always, your private stories. And I believe that our
duties as physicians do not lie only in the clinic,
on the wards, or in the OR but in making our
private stories public. Public storytelling
requires us to draw on our personal
experiences as physicians and to bring them
to public attention in order to improve
people's health and lives. How does telling your
own stories matter, you may be wondering. First, it's
empowering to testify, to convey your
experience and knowledge, not only for the listener,
but also for yourself. Telling your stories
means that you matter and your patients matter. And as Slovic points out,
telling a compelling story about an individual or a family
can create a relatable hook to spark our empathy. Think of a time when
your own heart changed after you heard a story or saw
a movie or play or read a novel. You carry that story with you. It changes you, just
as it changed others, moving us along,
even if it's slowly, toward healthy social change. And what about your
patients' stories? Here the role of
empathy is paramount. We can never truly get
inside someone else's head. As a gay white man,
I don't know what it feels like to be straight,
lesbian, transgender, or a woman. I don't know how
it feels to walk through the world as
an African-American, Asian-American, Native-American,
or Latino man, woman, or child. But through empathy, ignited
by the stories people tell, I can imagine what
it's like to be someone different from myself. And that is the beginning of
compassion and social justice. This means that you
must listen carefully to your patients' stories
and with their permission, give them voice. But you must also
help your patients voice their own
stories because nothing is more empowering than
telling one's own story. You have so much power in
your own stories to do good. Shine an antiseptic light on
injustice with your stories. I think medicine attracts
the naturally curious. Most physicians I've met
have a hunger for knowing about the wonders
of medical science and what it can accomplish. Physicians just dig knowing
how our bodies work. And that curiosity spills over
into all sorts of other areas, including music,
literature, poetry, and art, which not only enrich
your own lives, but also propel
you to learn deeply about your patients' lives. Curiosity is the
gateway to empathy. Curiosity presses you to
look at and listen to, touch, and even
smell your patient. In a beautiful piece written in
The Annals of Internal Medicine in 1999, Dr. Faith
Fitzgerald wrote, "it is curiosity that
converts strangers into people we can empathize with. To participate in the feelings
and ideas of one's patients, to empathize, one
must be curious enough to know the patients,
their characters, cultures, spiritual and physical
responses, hopes, past, and social surrounds." Stay curious. Keep asking questions,
particularly when it comes to the social
determinants of health that affect our wellness
and well-being. Don't only ask why these social
determinants like poverty, exposure to toxins and violence,
immigration status, and access to health care exist. We know why. We have a president
and Republican senators who would blithely kick 20
million people off their health insurance. We must also ask
how we can change things to make sure
everyone has access to the best care we can offer. And the best way I
know how to do that is to vote and to tell powerful
stories that stir the heart. Each of you has your
own story to tell, a story that has gripped
you, changed the way you thought about the world,
or moved you to tears. Take your private stories about
domestic violence, drug abuse, HIV, access to health care and
family planning clinics, needle exchange, alcohol abuse,
victims of torture, food deserts and make them public. You don't have to be
a television writer to have an impact. Write op ed pieces, work in
grassroots organizations, change the laws, testify
before the legislature, run for elected office,
debate your enemies, march for justice, stand
for truth, teach, blog, tweet, start your
own YouTube channel. Use your cellular
phones in new ways to improve people's
lives as Students at the University of
California at Berkeley did when they devised a way
to attach a small microscope to a cell phone so that a blood
smear could be sent to a lab far away. Consider how that can improve
the treatment of malaria. Or did you know that
students at Rice University have invented numerous devices
like a portable detector that can improve maternal outcomes
of pregnant women with anemia? Take your private stories
and invent new ways to treat patients. Devise ways to use
new media to inform the public about
breakthroughs that can improve people's lives. Astonishing treatments
and inventions are being made in
response to stories that move their inventors. You can do that, too. Thank you for the
honor and privilege of letting me share my
stories with you today and for giving me
the opportunity to thank the dean,
administration, and, most of all, our vibrant, unmatched,
and dedicated faculty for sharing their
stories as they've shepherd us to become healers. Thank you. So here's my
challenge to you today as you celebrate your entry
into this glorious profession. As your head hits
the pillow tonight and you close your eyes,
think about a story that moved you in medical school and
ask yourself, does it matter? Allow me to share a few stories
that have recently moved me. 49% of the 1.1 million people
living in the United States with HIV are now
undetectable, which means they are receiving
medication that will prevent them from
transmitting the virus and will keep them healthy. That leaves 51% who aren't
receiving proper treatment. Instead of asking
does it matter? I'd like to change the
question into a statement. Make it matter. Let's tell the story of HIV,
which has not been addressed adequately in this country. Did you know that in a recent
New York Times Sunday magazine article Linda Villarosa
wrote that, quote, "last year, the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention using the first comprehensive
national estimates of lifetime risk of HIV
for several key populations predicted that if
current rates continue 1 in 2 African-American
gay and bisexual men will be infected with the virus. That compares with
a lifetime risk of 1 in 99 for all Americans and 1 in
11 for white, gay, and bisexual men." Villarosa tells the story
of Cedric Sturdevant from Jackson, Mississippi,
who's traveled 300,000 miles in a
13-year-old Ford Expedition with cracked seats
and chipped paint. He's a visiting nurse who as
a young man contracted HIV. Now he takes care of young
gay and transgender women with HIV and AIDS, often
driving hundreds of miles to deliver medication
to those who live in isolation and shame. Fighting anti-LGBT stigma
and the lack of access to treatment,
Sturdevant has saved dozens and dozens of lives. He made it matter. And now I tell everyone I can
about the story of HIV and AIDS today in the United States. We discuss how we can
work to get medications to everyone who needs them. 55% of the adults in
my state California have diabetes or
pre-diabetes, also known as impaired
glucose tolerance. And 1/3 of those aged 18
to 39 are pre-diabetic. Recently a new
friend of mine was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. An inveterate Coke
and cookie lover, he decided that the risk of
blindness, neuropathy, kidney and heart disease were not
worth the brief enjoyment he found in the junk food he ate. Working with his
physician, he learned about insulin resistance and the
impact of sugar on his weight. He then decided
to change his diet and cut out sugar completely. After exercising and
losing nearly 50 pounds by not eating junk and processed
food, he's no longer diabetic. My friend made it matter. And I stopped eating sugar, too. Take your stories
and your passions and turn them into potent barbs
to fight dogmatism and bigotry. Use your private stories
that stir and move you and tell them any way you can. Invent new ways. Speak out. That is your mission-- to improve people's lives. You've got stories to
tell and many new ones will come along that will rankle
you and move you and become unforgettable and
fill your hearts. I'm standing here facing
you, the next generation of physicians, who give me hope. Now go out there and
tell your stories. Make it matter. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Baer. It is my distinct
pleasure to introduce the Dean of Harvard School
of Dental Medicine, Dr. Bruce Donoff. Dr. Donoff embodies the bridge
between our two schools. He received his DMD from Harvard
School of Dental Medicine and then went on to earn
his MD from Harvard Medical School as part of his residency
in oral and maxillofacial surgery at the Massachusetts
General Hospital, where he continued his work,
being named chairman and chief of service
in 1983, and continues to see patients at the MGH. He has served as our dean of
the Harvard School of Dental Medicine for over 25 years. In his career, he has
authored numerous papers and been the recipient of
some of the highest awards, including the Alpha
Omega Achievement Medal, an honor shared
with Dr. Albert Einstein. Pretty good company
to be a part with. It is my sincere
honor and privilege to introduce our beloved
dean of the school of Dental Medicine, Dr. Donoff. Good afternoon and
congratulations to everybody. This is such a special
day for the graduates of the Harvard School of
Medicine and Harvard Medical School. The Class of 2018,
congratulations to you and your loved
ones who have helped you reach this point in your lives. You are at a major milestone
of a long journey of education and training designed to
permit you to help people through the discovery,
application, and communication of knowledge,
competence, compassion, and caring. The development of wisdom
and clinical judgment through lifelong learning
and further experience represents the road ahead. Each year, I associate
the graduating class with a particular event
or accomplishment. Last year, it was the 150th
anniversary of the Dental School at Harvard University,
a momentous occasion, as it was the
first dental school in America associated
with a university and its medical school. This morning when I presented
the degree candidates to the president of the
university at commencement, she granted their
degrees and welcomed them into a demanding
branch of medicine. I can remember your class
for a remarkable group of DMD graduates who
have published more papers than any other class-- as matter of fact,
five times more than the largest dental
school class in America. Moreover, these
scholarly endeavors were on important issues
from health care delivery to cutting-edge basic science. This past year, the school went
through a full accreditation and received the report
with no recommendations-- perfect. This is also the last
class, as was mentioned, of the new pathway curriculum
and that I had the pleasure to teach patient-doctor
I on Monday afternoons. Will those home society
students please stand up to be embarrassed? I could not let this
opportunity pass without remembering two giants
of the faculty of medicine, both of whom passed away
on September 6, 2017 and had an immense impact on
education of Harvard Dental and Medical Students. Walter Guralnick
and Daniel Federman will be remembered for far more
than the professorships that bear their names. Primarily clinicians, they
both saw the importance of the integration of
oral health and medicine and worked together to forge
important curricular programs. In 1971, Dr. Guralnick
championed a program that added surgical training
and medical education to the playing
field of practice. This first program started
at the MGH and Harvard is now mimicked by
almost 60 others. In fact, 11 of you are
entering such programs around the country. Implemented as a Harvard-centric
program during the 1980s, it was Dr. Federman
who helped permit qualified graduates of
other dental schools to enter our program. It was also Dr. Federman
who called me one day when I was chief of oral and
maxillofacial surgery to say that he had attended
a double AMC meeting and attended a
session on teaching medical students about
dentistry and oral health. So I at the MGH, along with
Steve Sonis at the Brigham, initiated sessions
for medical students during their clerkships in the
essentials of dental medicine. Currently our
initiative to integrate oral health and
primary care medicine seeks to advance the education,
clinical practice outcomes, and policies regarding
comprehensive disease management and the economic
imperative of good oral health. We work with the medical
school's Primary Care Center to foster integration and
hope to create an integrated medical-dental practice
that will be a teaching unit for all students. When I had just
become professor, I had a series of
patient encounters that were remarkable because
of the patients involved and because each was prescient
of the remarkable future of health care that you, the
graduates, are now entering. I had a patient present
for a tooth extraction. I had seen him a year before. He said, hello, and then
told me to put on gloves before examining him. Mind you, most
dentists and physicians did not wear gloves for
general exams at the time. It was 1982. He had just had a bone marrow
transplant, developed graft versus host disease, and had
something called HIV infection. A disease that was a
diagnosis for death is now a treatable illness. That is part of health
care's past and future, and science made it possible,
although not a total solution. I also recall a group of a dozen
young women with tongue cancer. They had none of the
usual risk factors. And despite detailed
study of them, we could not identify a reason
for them to have such cancers. However, just recently it was
shown that these patients have a biomarker PD-L1, which can
be a very useful indicator for patients, young
patients, with a relatively well-behaved tongue cancer. Medical treatment
of surgical disease is becoming a reality for
dental decay as well as cancers. And science makes this possible. We've come a long way
since Australian physicians Barry Marshall and Robin Warren
won a Nobel Prize in medicine in 2005 for the discovery
that gastric ulcers are caused by bacteria. The discovery of
helicobacter pylori was groundbreaking and
opened up the study of the human microbiome
which is so important to today's understanding
of many diseases. It will just take one
of you to discover how the human immune system
turns these normal inhabitants into pathogens to really
make a difference. So congratulations
to the 34 individuals receiving the DMD degree, the 7
with honors in a special field, and the 6 receiving the
degree with general honors, the 13 receiving the
master of medical science and the 4 receiving the doctor
of medical science degree. And congratulations to
the residents and fellows who are receiving
specialty certificates and will go on to make an
impact in their chosen field. Always remember we
are privileged to take care of people. Treat them well, treat
them kindly, and treat them with great respect. Above all, treat
them all equally with one high standard of care. Don't allow missions of
mercy, thousands of people lined up for free
dental care once a year to become the profession's
scar of oral health delivery for the underserved. Don't permit our growing
elderly population's oral health needs from being excluded
from Medicare, as they are. Your achievement should
make you very proud. Those who have helped you
reach this day and those who have nurtured and
sustained you share that pride. The entire HSDM community
and I feel no small measure of joy and pride in
your accomplishments. We look forward to your future
with justifiably high hopes. Congratulations, Class of 2018. I hope your memories
of HSDM and HMS will always remain a
treasured part of who you are and who you become. Be the leaders you are in
transforming our health care world through science, policy,
and compassionate care. Most importantly, do the
right thing, especially when no one is watching. Thank you. I'm inviting Sang Park,
our Dean for Education and the senior fellows. And they'll reward the degrees. Thank you, doctor. Thank you, Dean Donoff. Good afternoon. I'm Sang Park, Associate
Dean for Dental Education at the School of
Dental Medicine. It is my honor to present
to you our amazing members of the Harvard School of
Dental Medicine Class of 2018. Will the members of the class
please rise and approach the podium to their right? These incredible
women and men have completed four or
more years of study toward a degree of Doctor
of Dental Medicine. Assisting in the
hooding today are members of our dental faculty
who are senior tutors. And they are Dr. Sam Coffin,
Dr. Aram Kim, Dr. Armando Pardo, Dr. Ezra Yener and
Dr. Ryan Cocadia. Class, are you ready? This is a very special
moment because you are receiving your diploma
and being addressed as doctor for the first time. With that-- [READING NAMES] In addition, we have Dr. Lauren
Elise Azaparti and Dr. Fian Leoni Walden who are not
able to be here today. Ladies and gentlemen,
please join us in congratulating the Harvard
School of Dental Medicine class of 2018. Congratulations again
to the Harvard School of Dental Medicine
Class of 2018. It is now my honor to introduce
the Dean of Harvard Medical School, Dr. George Daley. After earning his
bachelor's degree magna cum laude from
Harvard in 1982, Daley went on to earn his
PhD in biology at MIT. He received his MD from
HMS, graduating in 1991 with the rare distinction
of summa cum laude, an honor HMS has awarded only 18
times in the school's history. He then pursued clinical
training in internal medicine at Mass General and was a
clinical fellow at Brigham and Women's and Boston
Children's hospitals. After an active clinical
practice in hematology-oncology at Mass General and
Boston Children's, he assumed his administrative role
as the director of Pediatric Stem Cell
Transplantation Program at Dana-Farber Boston
Children's, a post he held until assuming his
current position as the dean of the faculty of medicine. Dean Daley has served as a
member of the HMS faculty since 1995. And in 2010, he became
a full professor at Harvard Medical School. Dean Daley's research focuses
on the mechanisms that underlie blood disorders and cancer. In past research, he
demonstrated the central role of Bcr-Abl oncoprotein in human
chronic myelogenous leukemia, work that provided
the critical target validation for the
development of Gleevec, a highly effective
therapy for cancer. It has been my pleasure to get
to know him over the last two years, and it is my
distinct privilege to welcome Dean
Daley to the podium. Thank you. Before I start my
official remarks, I'd like to recognize the
fact that the Harvard Medical community has lost one
of its legendary leaders. Dr. Irving London passed
away yesterday afternoon at the age of 99. Dr. London was the founder of
the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology division. He was a distinguished
scientist, a professor of biology at MIT,
and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. He taught the HST 140
molecular medicine course for much of
the last 50 years and was indeed teaching
actively through last fall and was already planning the
next semester's curriculum. I'm thankful that our community
was privileged to celebrate him just a few short weeks ago
with a joy-filled dinner at the Harvard Club. Dr. London leaves
a profound legacy. And we will honor him with a
suitable memorial in the months to come. Good afternoon. I'm thrilled to witness
this gathering of family, of friends, of mentors. We are all here to celebrate
you, the Class of 2018. I want to address my comments
directly to our exceptional HMS graduates. Today is the last day
I stand in front of you as your dean and the
first day I stand with you as your fellow physician. And that makes me
incredibly proud. It also makes me enormously
helpful as well for our future. Throughout your
careers as physicians, you will treat
thousands of patients with conditions both
rare and common. You will relieve
suffering of many, but despite your most earnest
efforts, some will die. Some of you will make
life-saving discoveries. You'll develop new
medicines for illnesses that are presently incurable. You will train the next
generation of physicians. You'll direct
research laboratories. You'll launch companies. You will employ your gifts
to make others healthier and to make the world a more
hospitable and healthier place. Today you and your
family are pondering the exciting opportunities
you have rightfully earned as a graduate of
Harvard Medical School. But I encourage
you also to ponder this, an uncomfortable truth-- American health care offers
the triumphs of modern medicine to many yet leaves millions
wanting for even the most basic of care. Yesterday's news reported
that 19 million Americans lack insurance coverage
and a significant number, but unknown, lack any access
to meaningful health care. This is appalling. Consider this--
what if you become a brilliant cardiac
surgeon and yet you have to turn away an immigrant
family whose cyanotic newborn infant has a surgically
treatable heart malformation, but no legal
status and no insurance coverage? Dr. Atul Gawande, who is one
of our outstanding and eloquent faculty members, recently asked
in a most compelling article in The New Yorker entitled,
"Is health care a right?" What do you think? Is health care the
inalienable human right asserted in the Declaration
of Independence, one of those rights granted
by our creator, a right that our government
is charged to protect? Is health care the means by
which unjust just government ensures that its citizens
will enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Or has health care
in the US become a privilege accessible only
to those with the resources to afford it? As practicing physicians,
health care providers, you will confront this question
with disturbing regularity. This will no longer be a
pathways discussion meant to provoke analysis and debate. This issue of health care as an
inalienable right will acquire flesh-and-blood dimensions. It will have a name, an age,
a medical record number, and a history that will
include pain and disability. At first, these encounters
will rattle you to the core. But gradually-- and I warn you-- you will be at risk of
becoming desensitized. My advice to you-- don't. You will be at risk of becoming
comfortably numb to injustices you see in your practice,
in health care generally, and around the world, but
my advice to you is don't. You will be tempted
to rationalize away inconvenient truths
and reach for the safety blanket of moral relativism. My advice to you-- don't. Health disparities, income
inequality, bigotry, racism, discrimination, xenophobia-- you will encounter these
on your hospital rounds, in the operating
room, in your labs, and throughout your community. These are maladies
that ail modern society and modern medicine. And today, I implore
you as new physicians to seek to cure these
ills, as budding surgeons to imagine excising them. Treating these ills requires no
less urgency in your practices than pneumonia or cancer. As you go forth
in your practices, I urge you to remember the
core values of Harvard Medical School. These core values
embody our reason for being as clinicians,
as scientists, as citizens. Serving humanity,
conducting yourselves with integrity and
accountability, striving through lifelong
learning for growth and excellence, embracing
and championing diversity, practicing inclusiveness
not elitism-- these are but a few
of the core values that we have worked to instill
in you at Harvard Medical School. So I urge you to-- remain vigilant
about the biases that impede your patients'
access to care, biases that will taint their outcomes. I urge you-- respect
and seek counsel from those who are
different from you. Just as diversity propels
biologic evolution, so it enriches us as clinicians,
as scientists, and as people. I urge you-- resist
becoming numb to injustice. Confront inconvenient truths. Pay heed to painful feelings. So today I urge you,
yes, use your talents to discover new treatments
for Alzheimer's, for diabetes, for cancer. Use your formidable
medical skills as well to diagnose and
treat the darker pathologies, those insidious behaviors that
drive wedges between races, ethnicities, and religions. These are ailments
every bit as worthy of your incisive
medical attention. Today I urge you to diagnose
and to treat them, as well. Martin Luther King
Jr. once said, "of all the forms of inequality,
injustice in health care is the most shocking
and inhumane." His words ring true today more
than a half century later. The inequalities he spoke of
are today often more subtle, at times less obvious, yet they
surround us and are insidious. I look at you with great hope. Perhaps one or more
of you will pursue research that unravels
the origins of these most virulent of pathologies,
the pathologies that lead to health inequities. And it is my fervent hope
that one or more of you will find the path towards cure. Quixotically naive,
perhaps, but remember, achieving equality
in health care is at the heart of fairness
and social justice. In my mind and I hope in
yours, access to health care is an inalienable human right. So as a newly minted
Harvard Medical School physicians, as you advance
our collective mission to alleviate human
suffering, remember this is the next frontier. This is the mission
I call upon, you members of the Class
of 2018, to pursue. Congratulations. I applaud each and
every one of you on this momentous
achievement in your life. Thank you very much. We will move to present the
diplomas to our graduates. And I call upon Deans Hundert
and Saldaña to advance to the podium. Well, class, you did it. Give yourselves a hand. Now I want you to
stand, up, turn around, and give your parents
and teachers a hand. I just have to say something
about the family members who are here because this phase of
your medical, dental education that you've been with
us, this first phase-- incredibly important--
you've developed the habits of lifelong learning. You learned all this important
bio science, social science, population science. You learned core
clinical skills. You developed your curiosity. You're actually going to
learn much, much more medicine in the next 30 or
40 years than you'll learn in these 4 or more years. So some people would say that
phase of your medical education is even more important. But for everybody
who is here today, I just want to make it clear
that the most important phase of your medical education
was from the time that you were born until
you were about a teenager when you became the
people who you are, not just the brilliant,
hardworking, dedicated people, but the people who
have the values and integrity, the character,
the other-orientedness, the compassion,
the curiosity, all of those important moral
values that we've heard about. So to that extent, I
think of the parents and the other
family members here who raised you as the most
important faculty of Harvard Medical School. And so we have an
extraordinary faculty here-- don't get me
wrong-- here on the quad and in our hospitals. But I sort of think of
today as a faculty meeting under the tent, most
important faculty. The biggest difference
between the parental faculty and our faculty here on the quad
is that in the parental role, you are first given
tenure in the job and then the opportunity to prove you
deserve it, which you all have, by the way. And Dean Daley likes to remind
me that here on the quad, we do that in the
other order around. So having said that, we have
some great traditions here in the way we award the MD
degrees to our students. One is that our students
are incredibly productive. You heard Dean Donoff talk about
the incredible publications. We have more
peer-reviewed publications than graduates in our class
every year, and so forth. Some of them have been
productive in other ways, and that is they have actually
had children while they were here themselves. They're parents. And so people often talk about
a diploma as a sheepskin. It used to be done
on a parchment. We have a tradition that if you
have children, bring them up. And while you get
your sheepskin, your child gets a little lammie,
little Harvard Medical School lammie. So I'll have those over
there to give to your kids. The other tradition we have is
that the diplomas are awarded by your academic society. For those family members
who are here who don't know, our students are divided into
five academic societies-- faculty, staff, people who
provide support for them while they're here. And so I'm going to call
up the advisory dean who is the leader of
each academic society to call the names of the
students in that society. They will come up and get
their diploma from Dean Daley. So we do this alphabetically. So we start with the
Walter Buchanan Society. I'd like to call the Advisory
Dean of the Cannon Society, Dr. Sara Fazio, to the podium to
begin the awarding of the MD degrees. Good afternoon. I am proud to represent the
graduating Class of 2018 from the Walter
Bradford Cannon Society. Graduates, please rise and
come forward to the stage. Hooding the graduates
this afternoon will be Dr. Kate Treadway,
associate director and advisor; Dr. Daniel Kamin, associate
director and advisor; and Anne Hudson, coordinator
of the Cannon Society. And without further ado-- [READING NAMES] Please give one last
welcome and congratulations to the Cannon Class of 2018. Next we invite all of the
students from the Walter B. Castle Society to come up-- I'm sorry, the William
B. Castle Society. I got that wrong-- William B. Castle Society-- one of our legends. And I like to call to the podium
the Advisory Dean of the Castle Society, Dr. Jennifer Potter. Good afternoon. It is my great
pleasure to present the graduating Class of 2018
from the William Bosworth Castle Society. Graduates, as you are
doing, please continue to approach this stage. And helping to hood
our graduates today are Claudia Galeas, our society
coordinator, and my co-advisors Dr. Nicki Johnson, Dr. Alden
Landry, Dr. Dana Stearns, and Dr. William Taylor. [READING NAMES] And also graduating with members
of Castle Society, Dr. Ashley Lau, who was not able
to be with us today. Please join me in one last
round of applause for our Castle graduates. Next, I'd like to ask the
students in the Oliver Wendell Holmes Society to start
processing forward. And I'd like to call to the
podium the Advisory Dean and Director of the
Oliver Wendell Holmes Society, Dr. Anthony D'Amico. All right, come right
on up to the stage. Thank you, Don Hundert. It really is a pleasure and a
privilege to have with me today the associate advisors and
our program officer who have been here through the
entire tenure of our students education, Dr. Emily Oken,
Dr. Helen Shields, Dr. Nhi-ha Trinh, and Ms. Csilla Kiss. It's also wonderful to be
able to have the privilege to say doctor for the first time
to the students of the Oliver Wendell Holmes family. It's a defining moment. It's a birthday in their life
and in their career today. And so we'll begin-- [READING NAMES] Let's give around of applause
to the entire Oliver Wendell Holmes family class. Well, next, slightly bittersweet
after the news of Dr. London's passing yesterday, we have the
students of the Irving London society. I'd like to ask you
to come up and begin to approach the podium. And I'd like to introduce the
Advisory Dean of the London Society and the Director
of the HST program that Dr. London founded almost
50 years ago, Dr. Wolfram Goessling. Good afternoon. HST students, congratulations. Please come up to the
front of the tent. I'd like to introduce the
members of the faculty who will be hooding the London
HST students today with me. They're my good my good friends
and colleagues, Junne Kamihara, Rick Mitchell,
and Matthew Frosch and the director of our academic
programs, Patty Cunningham. Joining us as well as
society administrators Karrol Altarejos, Zara Smith,
and Kate Hodgins. It is now my pleasure to
introduce to you the graduates of the Irving M. London
Society of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health
Sciences and Technology. [READING NAMES] Congratulations to all of
you, London Society HST Class of 2018. Congratulations to your parents
and children of this class. Now HST class, go
and change the world. And last but not
least, I'd like to ask the students of
the Peabody Society to begin to approach the podium. And I'd like to invite the
Advisory Dean of the Francis Weld Peabody Society,
Dr. Bernard Chang, to the podium to introduce
the students and the hooders. Good afternoon. It is my distinct
privilege to be able to introduce to you
the Class of 2018 graduating students of the Francis
Weld Peabody Society. Hooding our graduates
today will be the Senior Associate
Director Dr. Beverly Woo, Associate Director Dr.
Holly Khachadoorian-Elia, Senior Advisor Dr. Susan
Pauker, and the Inaugural Head of Peabody Society
Dr. Ronald Arky. As always, we have
been ably assisted by our longtime program
coordinator Ms. Lisa Derendorf. [READING NAMES] Congratulations again,
Peabody Society. And let's have one
more round of applause for all of the graduates
from the dental and medical. And before we invite Dr. Daley
to lead the class in the oath, I just have to say that one
of the other joys of my job maybe second only
to being involved with our students
and our faculty and our staff here is
that I spend probably about 20% of my time meeting
with alumni of Harvard Medical School around the country. And you are joining today one
of the most extraordinary groups of almost 10,000 people around
the country who really look out for one another. You will find that you can get
a referral for a specialist or whatever you need almost
in any city in the world through the alumni network. And so we really want
you to stay in touch. We're actually still here
for you after you leave. And I hope that everybody will
come back for various reunions. But importantly, just let
us know what you're doing. And if we can be
of help in any way, that's actually
what we're here for. So congratulations to everyone
and welcome to the Alumni Association, as well. We have AW Karchmer,
the Director, is here. He's going to say a word
before we do the oath. Well, realizing that I am
the only thing between you and an oath and the rest of
your career, I will be brief. But it is-- and also realizing
that there is a bladder capacity problem that may
be brewing somewhere-- it's a great pleasure for
me to welcome all of you to the Alumni Association. It is really an association
that as Dean Hundert has said is here for you I have a
couple of very brief comments to make. One, I want to quote Sir
William Osler in comments that he made in 1874 addressing
the medical and surgical graduates at McGill
College in Canada. And it is relevant to
the Alumni Association and what you are doing today. He said, "your
professional education"-- and he meant on graduation day-- "is by no means complete. You have only laid
the foundation for a long lifelong
learning process." And it is in that capacity
that the Alumni Association and the school would
like to serve you. And hopefully the school,
with the Alumni Association being a receptor
binding site for you, will continue to help you
process your continued lifelong learning. Secondly, you've heard some
really inspiring comments. And I would only leave you
with three pithy things that Dr. Daniel
Federman often commented and I think are very good
messages for going forward. Dan used to say "think
out loud, keep it simple, and never miss a
chance to be kind." And with that advice,
I will bid you again congratulations and
godspeed on your careers and many
accomplishments to come. We're all proud of
you-- wonderful day. Well, it's my privilege to
lead the reading of the oath of the Class of 2018. I'd like to ask the other deans
to come forward to the podium to help in this reading,
Doctor Donoff, Drs. Hundert, Dr. Saldaña. I'd like to ask the Class
of 2018 to please stand. And together we
will read the oath. "I solemnly affirm
that I will fulfill to the best of my ability
and judgment this covenant. I pledge to dedicate my life
to the service of humanity. The health and
well-being of my patients will be my highest aspiration. I will maintain the utmost
respect for human life curing when possible, healing
to the extent I am capable, comforting always. For I acknowledge that
there is art to medicine as well as science,
that empathy and warmth may outweigh the surgeon's
knife or the chemist's drug. Above all and with great
humility, I will do no harm. I will treat my
patients with dignity. I will counsel them
to make choices that promote their interests,
however they may define them. I will protect the
privacy of my patients, for their problems are
not disclosed to me so that the world may know. I will recognize
that I do not treat a disease but a sick
human being whose illness may affect the person's
family and economic stability. My responsibilities include
these related concerns if I am to care
adequately for the sick. I will remember that I
am a member of society with special obligations to
all my fellow human beings, both those sound of mind and
body, as well as the infirm. I will challenge my
biases and assumptions so that they do not interfere
with my duties to my patients. My actions to alleviate
the human suffering caused by disease will be guided
by the tenets of justice. I will address the
social determinants to my patients' health. I will advocate most
strongly for those who have the least power
to advocate for themselves. I will act courageously
in the face of injustice, both historical and modern. I will resist complacency
in my education. I will respect the
hard-won scientific gains of the pioneers in
whose steps I walk and gladly share my knowledge
with those who are to follow. In my own pursuit of
scientific discovery, I will conduct research
with integrity. Finally, I will practice
the same universal respect that I would wish for myself. I will sustain my own
health and well-being so that I may nurture
others without obstacle. In my treatment of
all, I will be kind. From this day forward,
I commit to this oath freely and upon my honor. May I always act so as
to preserve the finest traditions of my calling. And may I long
experience the joy of healing those
who seek my help." Congratulations to
the Class of 2018. This commencement is adjourned. Enjoy the evening. [MUSIC PLAYING]
