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CLASS DAY 2001 Student Speakers Address Trials, Rewards of Becoming Physicians The three student speakers at the HMS/HSDM Class Day ceremony on June 7 took the time to share the challenges they and their classmates faced during the journey through medical and dental school. But they also discussed the rewards and responsibilities that their futures held as the health care providers to society. The speakers thanked family, friends, and faculty for the various forms of support each had provided. Student speaker David Joyce's humorous talk kept the audience laughing. Thomas Jefferson had less debt after the Louisiana Purchase than he himself does after medical school, he told the crowd. The first student speaker, HSDM graduate Christopher Lugo, started by telling the audience, "Today I am a dentist," and from there retraced his steps from his decision to enter the dental profession, to choosing HSDM and moving 3,000 miles across the country to Boston, to his past four years of training. He told of the intensity of the third year, when dental students begin their clinical training at the HSDM clinic, and said it is like going to one's first swimming lesson and being pushed into the deep end of the pool. "But I knew that all my classmates were going through the same problems," Lugo said. "This created a strong bond within the class." Jeff Munson, the first medical student speaker, pointed out that the occasion was more than a day of celebration, that it was also a day when students take on a responsibility to society. He told his classmates and their families that medicine is more than just a career. "When we become physicians, we make a promise: a promise of humble service, a promise to temper natural greed with selfless concern for our patients, a promise to fight for those who cannot or will not fight for themselves, a promise to see all comers for what lies within, a promise never to abuse the trust that is given to us by those with nowhere else to turn." And he urged the newly minted physicians to "live in refutation of those who would see our sense of duty replaced by a sense of self-interest." In closing, Munson said, "Let the measure of our days be the chorus of thousands whose lives somewhere along the way were made more complete and more beautiful because on this day, we became doctors." Above, Holmes Society master Daniel Goodenough (left) congratulates graduating medical student Raul Ruiz. Below, HMS graduate Ian Kronish, HSDM graduate Bella Shen, and HMS graduate Marcia Lux (l to r) gather for a photo on Class Day. Photo above by Liza Green, HMS Media Services; below by Jeff Cleary "Just west of Boston's Back Bay, there's a place where the same scientists who eradicated smallpox and polio from the Western Hemisphere are working on a vaccine for the HIV virus," final speaker David Joyce told the audience. "You can rub shoulders with 11 different Nobel laureates or get gross anatomy tips from world-famous surgeons like Judah Folkman or William Silen. But if you plan on attending classes at Harvard Medical School, you better bring your VISA card, because tuition [plus expenses] is $44, 900 a year, and they don't take American Express." Joyce's humorous but thought-provoking speech had the audience laughing throughout. "Thomas Jefferson had less debt when he purchased the Louisiana Territory from the French back in 1803," he noted, but added that medical school took a toll on more than just bank accounts and told of the challenges the graduates faced on their way to becoming doctors. At the end of his talk, in a moment of seriousness, Joyce reminded his classmates to "never doubt that the gratification of serving other people is far more valuable than any material gain or personal achievement." This year HMS awarded 157 MDs to 75 women and 82 men. Twenty-nine percent of the graduates are underrepresented minorities, and 18 percent are candidates for an ad-ditional degree; 37 degrees were awarded through the Harvard–MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. Twenty MD–PhD degrees were awarded to four women and 16 men, and 68 PhDs were granted to 27 women and 41 men. The 32-member HSDM Class of 2001 comprised an equal number of men and women receiving the DMD. The Dental School also awarded 14 Master of Medical Science degrees to five women and nine men and six Doctor of Medical Science degrees to three women and three men. —Michael Higgins Koski Delivers Keynote at HST Graduation E. Greg Koski was the commencement speaker at the Harvard–MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology graduation ceremony on June 6. An HST alumnus, Koski was an HMS associate professor of anesthesia before being named last June as director of the Office of Human Research Protections, a new office within the Department of Health and Human Services. The office leads efforts to protect human subjects in biomedical and behavioral research.