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WILKES-BARRE — At commencement exercises for a local medical school Sunday, the overarching theme was all about new beginnings, for both the recent graduates and for the school itself.
Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine held its commencement at the F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts, marking the eighth class of Master of Biomedical Sciences students and the fifth class Doctor of Medicine students for the school. Sixty-nine master’s students and 87 doctoral students received their degrees.
The medical school, based in Scranton, was previously known as The Commonwealth Medical College, or TCMC. This year is the first under the new name after a partnership was struck with Geisinger.
After a procession set to “Pomp and Circumstance,” Monsignor Joseph Quinn offered an invocation. In it, he told the medical students that they are God’s “privileged instruments of divine healing.”
A general welcome was offered by Dr. Steven Scheinman, president and dean of the school. He called the past school year a “remarkable year of accomplishment,” and recognized a variety of individuals who were involved in the day’s success, ranging from the school’s faculty and staff, hospitals serving as clinical partners for the school and the family members that came out to support the area’s newest doctors.
Robert Dietz, chair of the school’s board of directors, told students that their education has differed from that of other medical schools because their education focused on two things above all: caring and community.
Dr. David T. Feinberg, president and CEO of Geisinger Health System, also spoke, recalling his own graduation and saying how proud his family was of him.
“This is a new beginning, for you and for the school,” Feinberg told the students. He went on to say that he was “excited to build a legacy together” with the new graduates.
Scheinman gave a more personal address to the crowd. He said that the college is “young enough that every class is historic,” with this year’s historic event being marked by the graduating students being the first to have the name “Geisinger” on their diploma.
“We may have changed our name, but we will always be TCMC, as in ‘this community’s medical college,’” Scheinman said.
The commencement address was offered by Dr. Deborah E. Powell, dean emerita and professor of laboratory medicine and pathology for the University of Minnesota. In her address, Powell framed her advice to students with Dr. Seuss’ poem, “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!”
“You’re entering the career of medicine in a time of amazing scientific discovery,” Powell told graduates, even admitting that she is a bit envious of the opportunities the grads will have.
After the degrees were conferred, Scheinman led the students in reciting the Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine’s oath, based on the tradition of doctors saying the Hippocratic Oath at the beginning of their medical career.
In their oath, the newly made doctors vowed to “cure sometimes, relieve often and comfort always.”
In Scheinman’s closing remarks, he challenged students to “never think of any patient as a routine case” and to “really care for your patients,” not to just take care of them.
Rabbi Peg Kershenbaum gave a closing benediction. She told the graduates to look to God for their “inspiration and support,” but also kept her benediction short, telling the new doctors she wouldn’t take too much of their time, as long as they “return the favor to patients in their waiting rooms.”