Former Virginia Governor
Mark Warner urges students to become involved in civic affairs
May 21, 2007
 NORFOLK—
Parents, friends and loved ones packed Norfolk’s Chrysler Hall May 19 to
watch 110 soon-to-be doctors and 130 aspiring health professionals graduate from EVMS.
As former Governor
Mark Warner scanned the crowd, he said it struck him that only a
miniscule segment of the world’s population “could even aspire to be
where you sit today.”
“The diploma that
you will receive today,” Warner said, “will be an incredible ticket to a
better future.” The very act of getting a medical diploma assures that
“you will become a leader in your community.”
But the “price”
for that ticket, Warner said, is “civic involvement” and making an
effort to reverse the polarization of political debate.
“We have too much
crossfire, and not enough crosstalk,” Warner said.
After
he spoke, EVMS Rector Vincent Napolitano gave Warner an honorary
doctorate, citing his lifelong commitment to education and health.
For the students,
the commencement culminated years of struggle and hard work. Medical
school “was the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” said Adam Munson-Young,
president of the 2007 M.D. class.
Munson-Young
talked about the massive amount of reading, the late nights, the “68,000
PowerPoint slides,” and the “Socratic method of teaching,” in which a
professor poses a tough question and all the aspiring doctors respond by
“looking at the ground or staring at the ceiling.”
Going through
medical school was like climbing a massive mountain, but the journey, he
said, was as fascinating as the goal.
Dean and Provost
Gerald J. Pepe, Ph.D., in his congratulatory address, praised the
students, but cautioned that their climb was far from over. To be
successful, students must continue to struggle.
“You have climbed
a hill,” Pepe said. “The mountain is still out there.”
Nonetheless,
students and parents celebrated this milestone with cheers, applause and
tears.
Mary
Shearer drove with her husband, Gary, from their home in South
Hamilton, Mass., to watch their son, Warren, receive his medical
diploma. Surrounding them sat five of Warren’s six children, and
Warren’s wife, Rianneke.
Shearer’s
graduation came at the end of a meandering trajectory that took
him from college to parenting to teaching high school and finally, in
his 30s, back to medical school, where he always wanted to be.
Mary Shearer
choked up when the first note of Pomp and Circumstance sounded. “And it
wasn’t the music,” she said.
The graduation,
the largest in the medical school’s 30-year history, included 110 M.D.s;
three who received Ph.D.s in biomedical sciences; and 127 who received
master's degrees in public health, biomedical sciences, art therapy,
clinical embryology and in the physician assistant program.
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