A Sophie Davis Student Recounts Zoom Graduation Ceremony, Officially Marking Their Transition into Medical School
Words by Ania Wojas
Graphic by Aspasia Celia Tsampas
On Friday, August 7th, 2020, the U3 class of the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education Class of 2024 commemorated their graduation from undergraduate education before officially starting their first year of medical school three days later. In the graduating class of 76 students, 23 graduated with Summa Cum Laude honors, 41 with Magna Cum Laude, and 10 with Cum Laude.
The ceremony took place over Zoom, with students and faculty dressed in official regalia and participating from their own homes. The commemoration began with a welcome from the President and Provost of the City College of New York, Vincent Boudreau, Ph.D., and Tony Liss, Ph.D., respectively, followed by a short speech from Congressman Adriano Espalliat, the U.S. Representative for New York’s 13th Congressional District. After remarks by Rosa Lee, MD, the Associate Dean for Clinical Curriculum and Assessment at CSOM, Austin Manjilla (‘24) and Katerina Jou (‘24), performed “Secrets” by OneRepublic on the cello and violin.
The Honored Keynote Speaker was Laurie Zephyrin, MD, MPH, MBA, who is the Vice President of the Health Care Delivery Reform at The Commonwealth Fund and a Sophie Davis graduate of the class of 1997. She spoke about her ‘why’ behind going into medicine and choosing to help the populations that she does, saying that, “Having empathy, compassion, the ability to walk in another person’s shoes, is really central to achieving [one’s] ‘why.’”
After Dean Dani McBeth, Ph.D., presented awards to students with the highest GPAs, the two-class awards to faculty and staff were presented by the class of 2024’s class representatives, Miceala Prisco and Damien Pizzaro. Dr. Ernest Patti, an ER physician at St. Barnabas hospital and a Course Director of Practice of Medicine & Physical Diagnosis was awarded the Faculty Appreciation Award for being, “a great role model for how we envision ourselves as physicians. Through his great teaching style, exciting personality, and his dedication to us and his work, even through this troubling time.” The second award went to Mr. Darryl Warner, the Gross Anatomy Chief Technician and Diener, with Pizzaro adding that, “Anatomy class is such a hard time for all of us and alongside all the helpful teaching staff that we had, we were very lucky to have Mr. Warner managing the anatomy lab throughout all the hours of the day and always being so kind and accommodating to all students.”
The class-elected class speaker, Bjarne Faraon (‘24), spoke next, reflecting on our last three years as Sophie students, and especially our last semester, which is known to be one of the hardest;
We had to take Fundamentals of Organ Systems and Anatomy last semester. It’s hard to wrap one’s mind as to exactly how hard that semester was, but I’ll do my best to try to put it into words. Even before COVID and the protests - side note to this speech, but main point to many people’s lives - black lives matter, period - even before all of that, I would wake up with heart palpitations. We didn’t even learn about heart palpitations, but that is what I imagine it to feel like. My alarm would ring at 4:30 AM and my heart would wake up with it, racing, knowing that I had the day to study, and not a second to waste. Some days it felt like I was treading in the middle of the ocean, with Dr. Spatz and Dr. Matthews right beside me in their boats, dumping buckets of water whenever we felt that we were finally caught up with the material. I wasn’t alone though. My classmates were right next to me, studying just as hard, if not harder than me - and that gave me the energy to succeed with them.
He also looked back on one of our first days as Sophie students, saying,
Last semester was challenging, to say the least. Three years ago, in our accepted students day reception, a Sophie alum spoke. He told us to look to our left and to our right, and to see the faces that we would be in the trenches with. And to become familiar with them because they would be the only people in the world that would know what you’re really going through. That’s how he described this program, and we were most definitely in the deepest trench, knock on wood, last semester.
Here’s Ania during the ceremony!
Following Faraon’s speech, Deans McBeth and Friedman awarded diplomas to the students, who each had the opportunity to speak and thank their family and friends.
I (virtually) spoke with Kimberly Serna (‘24), who looked back fondly on the ceremony, saying,
I thought that although we missed out on actually walking across a stage and having that in-person experience of graduating, I think the virtual graduation was something special and it gave us a chance to thank everyone in our lives when we were given the spotlight which we wouldn’t be able to do in a regular graduation.”
Genefer Duran (‘24) agreed with Serna’s sentiment; “It was definitely a different experience to be graduating online but I do think it was nice to have my parents by my side instead of at the stands with me as they called my name.” John Afif (‘24), concurred; “I liked it because it was a unique approach to such a beautiful moment. I felt comfortable that I could see all of my peers at once. The ceremony was beautiful and I loved it.”
The graduation concluded with a photo montage of the class of 2024, profiling important events through the last three years, including the summer pre-matriculation program, summer internships, basketball games, and of course, the white coat ceremony.
The recorded live stream is available on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nuk52E_05I&feature=youtu.be
