SPH Snapshot: January 2021 Graduation Celebration.
On January 25, the School of Public Health held a virtual celebration to honor the January 2021 graduates.
Family, friends, faculty, staff, and alums from all over the world gathered on Zoom to celebrate the graduates and their hard work. The event featured several remarks, including a taped video greeting by David Satcher, physician and public health administrator who served as the 16th surgeon general of the United States. Satcher was selected to deliver the 2020 Convocation Address last May, but the event was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We look forward to your joining the ranks of public health leadership, and to your future leadership role throughout this country and the world,” Satcher said to the graduates. “We need leaders who care enough, leaders who know enough, leaders who have courage to do enough, and leaders who will persevere until the job is done.”
The virtual format of the celebration was a reflection of the challenging circumstances of the past year, said Dean Sandro Galea.
“You have had to grow up faster than any public health cohort in recent memory, because of the pandemic, but also because of structural inequity exposed in recent years,” Galea said. “You have seen how threats like racism, climate change, inequality, gun violence and other challenges make us sick. Since day one at our school you have been engaging with these challenges.
“You have made the world healthier, and today you are tasked with the continuing this work at a time of unprecedented challenge and unprecedented opportunity.”