Gary Pettus authored the following post for UMC.
George Doby’s oldest child was 5 when he earned his bachelor’s degree in nursing school.
Seventeen years later, he watched her receive her own BSN – and, on the same stage, just minutes apart, she saw her dad accept his Master of Science in Nursing.
As Doby said: “How often do you get a daddy and a daughter graduating the same day?”
Doby and his daughter, Anna Welborn, both of Brandon, were two of around 765 graduates who strode across the Mississippi Coliseum stage to collect their diplomas Friday, during the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s 68th annual Commencement.
Students in the schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, graduate studies in the health sciences, population health and health related professions added up to a graduating class of 942, representing 943 degrees; one student, was awarded two, the MD/PhD.
A total of 930 degrees were conferred, officially, with another 13 students expected to complete their degree requirements. On Friday, Dr. LouAnn Woodward helped them mark this milestone in their careers.
“The work before you is hard. It is important. It is heavy. And it is rewarding and it is worth doing. Remember the excitement, the spirit and the passion you have today and keep it with you,” said Woodward, vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine.
“As you move forward in your career, look for the joy … . Every day is not a good day – some days are really tough. But you spend too much of your life working to not enjoy it. As you practice your profession, have a good time.”
Dr. Glenn Boyce, chancellor of the University of Mississippi, underlined the contributions of the graduates’ family and friends.
“No one succeeds on this journey alone, and I know there are loved ones here today who also sacrificed and supported you, some very deeply, on this journey,” he told the graduates.
And Boyce paid tribute to those who taught them. “These faculty have challenged you, guided you, demanded your best, and have given you, their best,” he said. “At times, I’m sure you probably thought they were too demanding.
“But very soon, when you compare your preparation at this health sciences campus with that of your peers from elsewhere, you’ll find how very fortunate you are to have been taught and trained by these outstanding faculty.”
For their part, Doby and Welborn, the father-daughter graduating pair, had one mutual faculty member during their intersecting journeys in the School of Nursing – where their presence seemed predestined.
Doby, 49, is from “a long line of nurses”: his mom, grandmother, two aunts, two cousins and a niece.
“Anna Leigh was 3 when I decided to go to nursing school,” said Doby, who earned his BSN at UMMC in 2007. Now 22, his daughter was enrolled at the University of Mississippi when she called to ask him if she was nursing material.
“He said, ‘Well, it’s in your blood,’” Welborn recalled. Taking that as a yes, she entered the BSN 2+2 program, finished her first two years in Oxford, then set out for Jackson and her final two at UMMC.
The culmination of their hard work was their separate, but binding, marches across the Coliseum stage. The day was doubly, even triply special. Both graduated with honors – Welborn, cum laude; Doby, summa cum laude.
Other degrees conferred include:
School of Dentistry, 33 graduates receiving the Doctor of Dental Medicine degree and 19 graduates receiving the Bachelor of Science in Dental Hygiene; total: 52, with eight still completing requirements.
School of Graduate Studies in the Health Sciences, 89 graduates receiving either the Doctor of Philosophy or the Master of Science.
School of Health Related Professions, 166 graduates receiving either the Doctor of Physical Therapy, Doctor of Occupational Therapy, or Doctor of Health Administration; Master of Occupational Therapy, Health Sciences, Health Informatics and Information Management, Magnetic Resonance Imaging or Nuclear Medicine Technology; or Bachelor of Science in Radiologic Sciences, Medical Laboratory Science, Health Sciences, or Health Informatics and Information Management. Four students are still completing requirements.
School of Medicine, 154 graduates receiving the Doctor of Medicine degree, with one additional student scheduled for June graduation.
School of Population Health, 16 graduates receiving either the Master of Science in Biostatistics and Data Science, Population Health Science or Population Health Management.
Doctor of Medicine/Doctor of Philosophy (MD/PhD), one.
The seven students who received top honors are:
Azure Dee Dianne Hayes, Richard N. Graves Award for the registered nurse senior deemed most outstanding by the faculty in clinical and overall performance;
Ansley Jessica Hill, Christine L. Oglevee Memorial Award for the outstanding School of Nursing baccalaureate graduate;
Ariel Tiana Walker, Dr. Virginia Stansel Tolbert Award for the student with the highest academic average in the School of Health Related Professions;
Jacob Hamilton Fortenberry, Wallace V. Mann Award for the dental student with the highest academic average for four years;
Isaiah Andrew Edwards, Waller S. Leathers Award for the medical student with the highest academic average for four years;
Kisa Kianna Harris, John D. Bower School of Population Health Award to recognize exceptional potential in the field of population health;
Xing Fang, Robert A. Mahaffey, Jr. Memorial Award to recognize exceptional research potential of young investigators in the School of Graduate Studies in the Health Sciences.
21 comments:
So thankful for UMC and all of this years students.
Our healthcare system needs all of the help it can get.
We are lucky to have Dr. Woodward. I had a child attend UMMC and was very impressed by her leadership and how well the place is run.
Out of 900, what does it mean to be seated on the back row?
Too bad the approximately $28 million this cohort paid in tuition (and that UMC gleefully pockets) doesn't translate to a vibrant healthcare industry in Mississippi.
70% of these professionals will leave the state within 5 years or less, and the other 30% will forego working to start a family. That's why there's a severe shortage of great healthcare professionals in Mississippi....but UMC makes bank, mostly from state and federal tax dollars that pay that tuition.
Prove me wrong. This shouldn't be seen as a celebration for the state in any way, rather only for those select families, and UMC's CFO.
Congratulations to all of them and to UMMC for the services it provides to our state.
3:47 trying to make trouble when others are sleeping. Have you never been to a graduation? They don't arrange them by their GPA.
6:23, I see a lot of UMMC grads do their residencies here and then practice here, and I also know a lot of nursing graduates who have stuck around, so your statistics are rather suspect. Regardless, UMMC, by all metrics, excels at their mission. It’s up to all of us as a whole to keep as many graduates as possible here in the state. UMMC can’t be blamed for their graduates leaving the state, unless you want to say UMMC trains them so well they are attractive to out-of-state employers. And by the way, my child had absolutely zero state or federal help with tuition there.
@7:27 that is correct, they are arranged by school, Dentistry all sits together, medicine, on and on
What have you been smoking 6:23? It varies a bit each year but in my specialty UMC is consistently in the top 10 of schools nationwide for keeping graduates in state to practice. Fact.
Note to 6:23...most of UMC's competitive programs (MD, DDS, Etc) only consider Mississippi residents. It's one of the few schools nationally that has an admissions practice like this. It really seems to me that the school is doing it's best to keep our kids home.
It sort of stinks that our UMC grads are massed together in a huge Stalinist barn. Dang. Our neighboring states manage to find professional venues and do it by college instead of Tazing some 900 head of cattle into a literal concrete barn here.
So, families spend so many hours and the grads could finish their residency before it ends. Do better UMC!
Is the chancellor so lazy or cheap that he just wants to regurgitate one boring speech or to use the free concrete swimming pool like the Beverly Hillbillies? Surely we have, say, a Convention Center or theater somewhere that can accommodate 150 families? Some colleges have only 33 grads. Good grief.
I can understand the area "warehouse" high schools using it, as they have 400 or 500 grads, but it's low class to have MDs and PhDs getting the Spirit Airlines graduation.
9:17, where else could they go? Sadly, the State of MS has not built a modern multiuse facility that can host concerts, basketball, ice hockey and other entertainment. An 8-12 thousand seat facility would be great.
9:17, if the commencement venue is your top concern, I’d say UMMC is doing pretty well. I’ve been to one there and it is just the right size and place for it.
And please, it’s the cement pond, not the concrete swimming pool.
"Out of 900, what does it mean to be seated on the back row?"
Duh - your last name is Zylinski ;-)
"my child had absolutely zero state or federal help with tuition there."
Wrong - your child may not have had any individual funds directed towards them by name, but the establishment as a whole has generous support from the state and federal governments to partially subsidize the tuition.
"9:17, where else could they go? Sadly, the State of MS has not built a modern multiuse facility that can host concerts, basketball, ice hockey and other entertainment. An 8-12 thousand seat facility would be great. "
Really? Hhmmm - I must have been hallucinating that I saw Willie Nelson in a seated amphitheater in Brandon last year that could comfortably hold the size of the crowd that typically attends the UMMC graduation ceremony. Since family members come from everywhere in the state I think they could manage to find Brandon with their GPS gizmos.
I know most of the schools at UMC have a separate smaller ceremony the night before that is a little fancier and more intimate. Medicine has a white coating ceremony at Thalia Mara or the Convention Center on Thursday night for example. I've been a few times to that event and it's really a nice. Years ago UMC's graduation was at Thalia Mara...but it won't fit anymore. Jackson just doesn't have very many really big rooms.
Puhleeze. UMC's graduation venue is like a county equine barn. UT uses a 2000 seat theater. Wow, do we have a 2000 seat theater? Yeah, Thalia Mara. Even the JCC has a 328 seat theater (recall that the Dental School had 33 DDS grads max), and it has 60K sq feet of space. No excuses.
It is an embarrassing venue for doctors to be graduating in. Smells of tractor pulls and BS. Fitting, I guess, for Hinds auto techs or MSU Ag grads.
Professional schools should look professional, and it's not Barnum and Bailey Clown College. Well, on second thought...
I give up. 200 years here and this place gets more hick every day. We used to dress up and act civilized. Now, declasse is de rigueur. Yee Haw, let's git to gradyeeashun, MeeMaw.
@10:29
I graduated from UMC twice. I never saw anything wrong with the venue being the coliseum.
Of course I am not a pretentious jackass, so that may play a large role in that.
10:13, any event at the Brandon Amphitheater is subject to the whims of the weather. It’s one thing to cancel or postpone a Willie Nelson concert, quite another when dealing with a professional school commencement. UMMC chooses to host it in an indoor venue so as not to have to worry about rain or heat and I wholeheartedly agree with them. I’ve never heard anyone complain about the commencement being held there, and I’m worried about the mental health of anyone who would pick that issue to worry about. Plus, the coliseum is a state resource and thus free to taxpayers.
Sorry to use logic against your emotional rant.
10:09 the same can be said of any student who attends a state-owned medical school. UMMC is far from the cheapest- over $30,000 a year. Stop attacking public universities.
Post a Comment