A Letter to Our Graduates.
A Letter to Our Graduates
In a note to the class of 2025, Dean Ad Interim Michael Stein celebrates new graduates’ accomplishments and discusses the exciting and challenging times that lie ahead in the next chapter of their careers.
Dear graduates, the Class of 2025:
For this entire weekend, we celebrate you, our graduating students, for all the hard work you have done, and we look forward with excitement to all that you will do in the years ahead. Yesterday, you entered the Boston University Track and Tennis Center as students and, with the simple additions of a cap and gown and a few magic words, left as BU alumni. This is the culmination of all you’ve been working towards and waiting for. We rejoice loudly in your achievement, in your record of success.
You are departing SPH with convincing knowledge of a new language: a brew of quantitative methods, of health systems, law and policy, of leadership and management, of population health. You will also have a new standard to judge yourself by, a new two- or three-lettered professional degree in hand, and a new role within a wider community.
That role comes with your hard-earned understanding that no matter where you are—be it Boise, Botswana, or Boston—you will have the skills to protect our communities. You will not throw up your hands, even if others do. You will save lives. You will be just and inclusive. You have learned that the health of others is now your responsibility.
Public health is an ethos. At SPH you have taken on the spirit of collectivity and interdependence. You have learned what it means to be the protectors of societal health, of the public’s health, of our common home.
You will stop at times to remind yourself of why you are doing what you are doing. You will remember that your job is to make the world a better place. I used to think this was everyone’s job; I’ve come to believe this isn’t true of all careers. But it is true of people in public health. Your job is to create the conditions for health so that people can live better, fuller, more dignified lives. You are among the few who actually know how to do this; this is what you’ve learned over these last years with us. You know that creating health is difficult. In this era of unprecedented challenges, you have acknowledged that “better health for all” should not only be a lofty catch phrase, but an extension of citizenship.
You have demonstrated your commitment to this goal during your time in the program and I am certain that you will distinguish yourselves as leaders of our field in the years to come. I have no doubt that your work in public health will be long and varied. It will include mystery, adventure, fear, courage, discovery, and—dare I say it—fun.
This mix is exactly what we wish for you, as you take your next steps.
We are so proud of you. We believe you will find your way to jobs that are of consequence and of personal value, and you will always be part of our school community. We cannot wait to see what you do next.
Once again, congratulations.
With warmth, excitement, and happiness,
Michael
Dean Ad Interim
Boston University School of Public Health
