CRISTY PAGE: Celebrating the UNC School of Medicine class of 2020

Monday, May 4, 2020 -- While their training has been upended by COVID-19, our UNC School of Medicine students have not sat idly by. They have found ways to put their skills and talents to use, volunteering in our hospitals, staffing patient help-lines, working in partnership with fellow UNC and N.C. State students on 3-D printing and fabricating face shields to be used in the hospital, and even providing necessary childcare for the families of faculty and residents.

Posted 9:00 a.m. May 4, 2020 — Updated 9:43 a.m. May 4, 2020

EDITOR'S NOTE: Dr. Cristy Page is the William B. Aycock Distinguished Professor and Executive Dean of the UNC School of Medicine.

Friday (May 8) the University of North Carolina School of Medicine celebrates the Class of 2020. In the midst of COVID-19, we will hold our traditional hooding ceremony in a very untraditional way – broadcast over Zoom and YouTube.

We know that this was not what these brilliant students envisioned for this milestone event. I am truly disappointed that we are not able to celebrate with them, share in the hugs, the high-fives and witness the pride in the eyes of their parents and loved ones.

While they didn’t envision their special day going like this, the goals that they have for their careers are still very much in reach and perhaps more vital than ever. They will serve, comfort, and heal. They will – to borrow a commencement cliché – change the world.

They are ready.

Not only are they equipped with incredible knowledge, skill, and compassion, but over the last several weeks they have seen the key principles of their training in the art and science of medicine making unprecedented impacts.

They have seen physicians, researchers, and many, many others -- from Chapel Hill to New York City, in Italy, and in China -- link arms against a challenge unlike anything we’ve faced before. They have witnessed true heroism. They have seen health professionals walk the walk, putting the health of their patients and communities above their own. They have witnessed the power of biomedical research and seen what can happen when our most innovative minds focus their energy in a single direction.

At the UNC School of Medicine, our renowned researchers are working collectively, around the clock, to help us all better understand the biology, transmission and treatment of COVID-19. Additionally, we have all watched with pride as Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, who earned her PhD in microbiology and immunology from the UNC School of Medicine in 2014, leads the team working toward a vaccine for COVID-19 at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland.

While their training has been upended by COVID-19, our medical students have not sat idly by. They have found ways to put their skills and talents to use, volunteering in our hospitals, staffing patient help-lines, working in partnership with fellow UNC and N.C. State students on 3-D printing and fabricating face shields to be used in the hospital, and even providing necessary childcare for the families of faculty and residents.

As we celebrate the accomplishments of our Class of 2020, I have also thought about the lessons that we are learning from this pandemic and how we’ll teach those lessons to future generations of medical students. I am confident that we’ll be able to tell a story of how compassionate care, expert research, and selfless collaboration saved lives.

And I hope that story will inspire more young people to pursue medicine. I hope young women will hear Dr. Corbett’s story and see themselves in the lab, engineering our next great breakthroughs. I hope children who are watching their parents leaving early each morning and coming home exhausted late in the evening will envision themselves one day doing the same noble work.

Our 2020 medical school graduates, at UNC and across the nation, are entering our profession at a pivotal time. They will soon begin their residency training, working in hospitals throughout the country. They’ll bring fresh eyes and new, innovative solutions. They will help us as we continue advancing our knowledge in clinical care and research.

So, congratulations to the Class of 2020. It has been a privilege to be a part of your medical education. I can’t wait to see what you’ll teach us all in the years ahead.

To learn more about the UNC School of Medicine's virtual graduation and share well wishes with the Class of 2020, visit our webpage here.