‘Be Your Own Miracle’: Commencement Speaker Reflects on Meaning of Graduate Education
Posted in GUMC Stories | Tagged Biomedical Graduate Education, Commencement 2024, student achievement
(May 24, 2024) — More than 400 Biomedical Graduate Education (BGE) graduates received master’s and doctoral degrees in various fields across basic and applied science, clinical disciplines, data science and pre-health training during the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences (GSAS) Commencement.
Most of the BGE Class of 2024, comprising 354 master’s and 16 executive master’s graduates, received their hoods – gold for Master of Science, white for Master of Arts and peacock blue for executive master’s – at the ceremony. The 48 doctoral students received their blue hoods on May 16 in historic Gaston Hall, the day before celebrating commencement on the lawn in front of Healy Hall.
“Today our BGE PhD, MS and executive master’s graduates have made huge steps forward in their biomedical sciences journey,” said Anna Riegel, PhD, vice president for biomedical graduate education and research at Georgetown University Medical Center, where the BGE programs are administered. “I look forward to learning about all of their successes in the future. Congratulations to everyone for your hard work and well-deserved degrees.”
Faith in You
Imani Perry (L’02), a Georgetown Law alumna and professor at Harvard University, delivered the commencement address for the GSAS and was presented with an honorary doctor of humane letters. Recognized as an interdisciplinary scholar, teacher and thought-provoking writer, she is both a Guggenheim and MacArthur fellow.
Perry told the graduates that the challenges they face suggest the need for faith in themselves.
“I’m talking about faith in one’s purpose and one’s endeavors,” she said. “I’m talking about sustaining faith in what you have done in completing a graduate degree. Faith in who you have become.”
Invoking words attributed to Socrates, she added, “The unexamined life is not worth living.
“Your decision to pursue an advanced degree means you have chosen to lead an examined life and an examining life,” she continued. “Graduate study requires you to make an assessment of yourself and the world to reflect on what you’ve learned thus far and to deepen your understanding of a given subject matter.”
Perry explained that the graduates had achieved a new capacity for examining life. “It’s a life in which you have mastered methods of study, pursued new questions and added to the body of human knowledge,” she said. “It is a noble choice. It reflects a desire to be of use to society. You have added something to humanity’s permanent record with your course of study.”
But Perry also offered a note of caution about the hubris of obtaining an advanced degree.
“We who have advanced degrees become quite skilled at analysis, critique and method, but with that we can sometimes become dispassionate — matter-of-fact, emotionally disconnected, taking refuge or becoming arrogant in our credentials and skills. Please don’t do that.”
Perry closed with a final plea of the graduates: “I beg of you, please be kinder than the world we live in,” she said. “Be your own miracle.”
Watch This Year’s Commencement Ceremony
Commencement Highlights
Students process in for the Commencement ceremony.
Imani Perry (L’02), a professor at Harvard University, delivered the commencement address for the GSAS and was presented with an honorary doctor of humane letters.
BGE graduates prepared to walk the stage.
From left: Louis Ballard and Maiya Davis awaited their turn to accept their Master of Science in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology degrees.
Ambrose Chan (G’24) and Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia. Chan received his MS in Physiology and Biophysics.
Britany Achiaa Agyen (G’24) and Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia. Agyen received her MS in Physiology and Biophysics.
Marcus Agyin (G’24) and Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia. Agyin received his MS in Pharmacology.