Graduating students from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai celebrated their MD degrees during a unique commencement ceremony.
It was a most unusual commencement ceremony on Friday, May 15, for the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, an event that was prerecorded and livestreamed to the geographically scattered members of the Class of 2020. For this commencement, graduates received their degrees not from the stage at New York City’s Lincoln Center, with all the hoopla associated with large celebratory crowds, but from the isolation of their homes.
These are the doctors and scientists who graduated in a city—and from an institution—upended by the physical and emotional disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the class that will forever be united in understanding how much healing the world requires, and the scientific discoveries that it urgently expects.
Amid the sobering speeches that were given, the oaths that were recited, and the honorary degrees that were granted, there was a special jubilance among the graduates as they made this ceremony their own. Unique to this commencement, these graduates were able to announce their own names as their degrees were conferred, which they did in short video clips, Oscars-style, with creativity and humor.
Dennis S. Charney, MD
While many graduates thanked their families, friends, and mentors for their success, others chose to give credit to their cat, or dog, allowing their pets to make cameo appearances. While several graduates wore real caps and gowns, one was “hooded” with a wreath of flowers while standing in a garden; for another, a long strip of toilet paper served as a makeshift sash. One graduate, wearing a Hawaiian shirt and shorts, was performing an athletic leg split on the beach as he announced his name. For the graduates, it was clearly time to celebrate their resilience and their future.
Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and President for Academic Affairs, Mount Sinai Health System, began his address to the students by saying, “I am going to speak from the heart.” He then recounted the speech he gave to the medical students at their first-year 2016 White Coat Ceremony:
“When I look back at the speech, it turns out it was pertinent for today. Back then, I said to you that being a doctor consists of people coming to you in the crisis of their lives and asking for answers. Being a doctor means living up to immense expectations of society. At any hour and any place, it is assumed that if tragedy strikes, there will be a doctor on hand to handle the case with grace and competence.” He added: “I know you have gotten to experience this.”
Dr. Charney continued: “And then I said to you in 2016, when an epidemic emerges, when the unspeakable occurs, it often falls upon physicians to be first responders, to explain how and why, even when it may be inexplicable.” He added, “That certainly is what we are facing right now. You are going to be part of the first responder group now that you are becoming physicians and you are entering your first years as residents.”
He continued: “I also want to point out that adversity reveals the character of an individual, and I’ve seen in you, the Class of 2020, the kind of character that has been revealed in the current pandemic and the adversity that goes along with it. So, I have great confidence in your ability to rise up and face the challenges that you are going to see over the next part of your career.”
In total, 139 MD degrees, and 79 PhD degrees in Biomedical Sciences and Neuroscience, were awarded to the Class of 2020. Among them were graduates who were part of dual-degree programs: MD/PhD (21); MD/MPH (5); and MD/MSCR (10). Also included in these figures were the 77 medical students who were granted permission to graduate early in April, some to join the Mount Sinai Medical Corps, a newly formed training program that gives them an opportunity to provide vitally needed support services to an overburdened staff during a time of extraordinary and unprecedented demands.
David Dominguez-Sola, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Oncological Sciences, and Pathology, center, and PhD graduates, recited an oath for doctoral candidates.
Kenneth L. Davis, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer, Mount Sinai Health System, greeted the graduates, remembering the words of a colleague as the pandemic surged. “He noted that this crisis has kept us apart at the very moment we need to feel closer,” said Dr. Davis. Still, “These dark days have shined a light on the reality that we are all connected,” he said. “Mount Sinai is built upon that idea, and the beauty of our community is that in difficult times, we come together. We come together to heal all those who need our care. That unity is how we rise above fear. It’s how we triumph.”
James S. Tisch, Co-Chairman, Boards of Trustees, Mount Sinai Health System, acknowledged the significant volunteer efforts of medical and graduate school students during the pandemic as members of the Sinai Student Workforce. “Even before you graduated, most of you rushed to help in this crisis,” he said. Mr. Tisch cited their coordination and sterilization of personal protective equipment, their assistance to patients as they used the telehealth platform, and their work in laboratories, administration, and operations, among other efforts. “No professor had to teach you the need for teamwork. You knew the Health System needed your help, and you stepped up to the challenge,” he said. “On behalf of all the Mount Sinai Trustees, thank you.”
Darren Walker, JD
Honorary degree recipients Darren Walker, JD, President of the Ford Foundation, and Vice Admiral Jerome M. Adams, MD, MPH, the 20th Surgeon General of the United States, each gave an address.
Mr. Walker, a social justice activist and philanthropic innovator who has worked to create sustainable social change and transform the lives of countless people in need around the world, received a Doctor of Humane Letters.
In his address, Mr. Walker invoked the essence of a remark made in 1968 by civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., to actor/activist Harry Belafonte—“In a burning house, we all must become firefighters.” Mr. Walker continued on that theme. “As promising medical researchers and doctors, you are firefighters called to serve a world on fire,” he said. “Our society has always asked health care workers to fight its fires, to combat public health emergencies that are kindled and fueled by deep, structural inequality. We ask our researchers and our doctors to treat victims of America’s opioid epidemic, to care for children poisoned by lead-filled water, to tend to patients who have gone without adequate care simply because of their zip code. And, with each new crisis, you show up ready, suited up, and eager to serve, to learn, to give, to heal a broken world. You are the firefighters for justice.”
Vice Admiral Jerome M. Adams, MD, MPH
Dr. Adams received a Doctor of Science degree for dedicating his career to public health at the highest level and for having an enduring impact on the health of the American people.
As Surgeon General, Dr. Adams is considered the nation’s doctor, and he offered several challenges to the graduates. Among them was this request: “I ask that you be patient, but persistent. We’re in the midst of a once-in-a-century public health crisis, and the truth is, there is no blueprint for how we get through this,” he said. “Be persistent about demanding change you feel will improve outcomes.” He continued: “One thing is painfully clear: the status quo wasn’t adequate to deal with the novel coronavirus. So, I am calling on you to be innovators and disruptors. Never before has there been an environment so willing to embrace new ideas and to break old molds.”
Marta Filizola, PhD, Dean, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and Sharon & Frederick A. Klingenstein-Nathan G. Kase, MD Professor of Pharmacological Sciences, and Neuroscience, addressed the PhD graduates. “I am in awe of how many of you have joined your colleagues in these difficult times in supporting our Mount Sinai community while completing courses, writing dissertations, and defending your theses,” she said. “The flexibility, resilience, and adaptability you have demonstrated during your training at Mount Sinai, and especially during these past months, will be an inspiration for generations of Mount Sinai students.”
During the ceremony, the medical degree candidates, in robust unison from remote locations, read the Hippocratic Oath, Modern Version. In part, they pledged to “respect the hard-earned scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk,” “to prevent disease whenever I can,” and “to remember that I am a member of society, with special obligations to my fellow human beings.”
Marta Filizola, PhD
The PhD candidates recited their own oath, that pledged, in part, to “uphold the highest levels of integrity, professionalism, scholarship, and honor,” to “conduct my research and professional endeavors with honesty and objectivity,” and to “not allow financial gain or ambition to cloud my judgment.”
David Muller, MD, Dean for Medical Education, and the Marietta and Charles C. Morchand Chair of the Department of Medical Education, gave concluding remarks. “You are very dear to me,” he said to the Class of 2020. “We have been through so much together. I speak for all of us in Medical Education when I say that we are changed forever because of what you’ve given us, what you have taught us, the faith you’ve placed in us, and the opportunity we’ve had to help shape your future as physicians, scientists, advocates, and activists.”
After the event, two MD and two PhD graduates provided added perspective on the ceremony and their futures. Zina Huxley-Reicher, MD, described the experience of a virtual commencement, saying in a short video: “Graduating now is an honor. It’s hard, it’s difficult. It was so wonderful to see all of my classmates virtually today, and to see their video clips that they shared with us that really just demonstrated who they are as people and as doctors. It was inspiring as ever. My classmates have been my rock during this whole time and graduating now into the pandemic, it just really brings home the importance of being true to yourself, of fighting for equity, and fighting for patients and for our communities and hoping to take what we all have learned during this pandemic and turn this into a positive and more just health care system.”
David Muller, MD
Also providing a short video clip was Chierika “Coco” Ukogu, MD. Wearing her cap and gown, she said, “I just virtually graduated with the Class of 2020 from Mount Sinai. It definitely wasn’t Lincoln Center, but it was so incredible, even in this pandemic, to celebrate the work that we’ve done for the past four years. I cannot wait to see where my colleagues end up and how much they advance the field of medicine, and to the Class of 2020, I say a heartfelt congratulations!”
“I was glad we could mark the occasion in spite of COVID-19, though it felt a bit surreal,” said Jennie Altman, PhD, who was the PhD student commencement speaker. “It is unfortunate that it took a global pandemic to catapult science and the importance of research into the spotlight. However, it is arguably the most interesting time to enter the scientific workforce as a microbiologist, but for such a tragic reason. I hope the general public hangs onto this newfound interest and that science remains in the spotlight so we can have more favorable outcomes in the future.”
Samuel Rose, PhD, who received his degree in Biomedical Sciences, said, “The home-theater viewing certainly can’t be matched for convenience, but the pageantry and awkwardness you would get from an in-person graduation was something I missed more than I thought I would, although the 10-second acceptance clip felt more personal than a walk and a handshake in some way. Seeing and hearing my classmates during the ceremony, and my family and friends afterwards, albeit digitally, did make it feel like a special day. The fact we couldn’t celebrate together just gives all the more reason for a reunion when things are a little more normal.”
