SYRACUSE — Upstate Medical University on May 1 conducted its first-ever virtual commencement, conferring degrees on 419 students who graduated from Upstate’s four colleges. The event was originally set for May 3 at the SRC Arena on the Onondaga Community College campus, but since the COVID-19 pandemic, all large gatherings have been canceled, “necessitating the […]
SYRACUSE — Upstate Medical University on May 1 conducted its first-ever virtual commencement, conferring degrees on 419 students who graduated from Upstate’s four colleges.
The event was originally set for May 3 at the SRC Arena on the Onondaga Community College campus, but since the COVID-19 pandemic, all large gatherings have been canceled, “necessitating the virtual ceremony,” Upstate Medical said.
Dr. Mantosh Dewan, interim president of Upstate Medical University, the college deans, and other speakers “emphasized commencement’s unique circumstances” and praised members of the Class of 2020 for their “resilience and dedication” to a field centered on helping others.
“More than ever, we need each and every one of you,” Dewan said. “Close your eyes and walk across a splendid stage and out into a temporarily troubled world as a graduate and a hero.”
Dewan discussed the global coronavirus pandemic and how the Class of 2020 will be called upon as humanitarians as well as medical professionals.
“Today we watch with pride as you commence onto an even bigger stage and embrace wonderful new roles,” said Dewan. “These roles will call for the best in you. You are going out into a scary world, not to do a job, but to follow your profession; to fulfill your higher calling, to pursue your dreams of changing the world. You are everyday heroes that we so desperately need.”
Featured speaker
Dr. Howard Zucker, New York’s health commissioner, served as the ceremony’s featured speaker.
The health commissioner has been a big part of the state’s COVID-19 pandemic response and was Upstate’s commencement speaker in 2019 as well.
Zucker highlighted Upstate graduates’ efforts during the pandemic including 65 students who graduated early to assist with medical efforts near New York City and those in Syracuse who were researching emerging COVID-19 literature and providing in-person support to clinicians “on the front lines.”
“You are embracing new professions at a moment of incredible public need that did not exist a year ago when I addressed the class that came before you,” Zucker said.
Zucker praised Upstate’s joint commencement involving graduates from the colleges of nursing, health professions, medicine, and graduate studies. He said it represented health-care’s “necessary and growing focus on collaboration, which has proven beneficial in the state’s fight against COVID-19.”
“The future I see for health care is not one of complacency but of resiliency and ingenuity and that’s what we have seen on the front lines fighting this pandemic in New York state,” Zucker said. “We have seen incredible resourcefulness, the strength derived from compassionate peer support; an unflagging dedication to making the system work better in the future.”
Additional speakers
Upstate’s virtual commencement broadcast, included a live-chat feature where the more than 1,000 people viewing could also express congratulations to the graduates. The ceremony included a message from Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon, who encouraged the graduates to stay and work in Central New York.
College deans at Upstate Medical also addressed the graduates. They included Julie White, dean of student affairs; Tammy Austin-Ketch, dean of the College of Nursing; Katherine Beissner, dean of the College of Health Professions; Dr. Lawrence Chin, dean of the College of Medicine; and Mark Schmitt, dean of the College of Graduate Studies.
The student speakers included Heather Bedard from the College of Nursing; Amber Walker from the College of Health Professions; Yaa Takyiwaa and Dr. Jared Sweeney from the College of Medicine; and Adam Blanden from the College of Graduate Studies.