As she looked out at the MD Class of 2023 – the medical school’s sixth graduating class of new physicians – Kimberlydawn Wisdom, MD, MS, posed a question.
“Do you see what I see?” she asked as she turned and used her cellphone to capture a selfie with the students in the background.
“Your smiles are contagious, the energy is palpable, your eyes are filled with hope and a bright future at this transition inflection point where there are new horizons ahead to navigate,” Dr. Wisdom said.
Dr. Wisdom, who serves as senior vice president of Community Health and Equity and Chief Wellness Officer at Henry Ford Health, was the keynote speaker at this year’s commencement ceremony, which was held on May 11, 2023, at WMU’s Miller Auditorium. The event was a culmination and celebration for the Class of 2023, graduates of the medical school’s Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences degree program, as well as their families, friends, and the WMed community.
Dr. Wisdom, who served as Michigan’s first surgeon general, said she was excited and humbled to speak to the 76 MD graduates that made up the Class of 2023 and celebrate their “induction into one of the most honored and noble professions on the face of the planet.”
“This day will be etched in your hearts and minds forever,” she said. “This moment defines a path that few have the ability to endeavor.”
WMed Dean Paula M. Termuhlen, MD, told the graduates that each class of new physicians plays an important role in building – and contributing to – a legacy and rich history of excellence at the medical school.
“Your success as graduates is a measure of our success as a medical school,” Dr. Termuhlen said. “We look forward to all that you will achieve throughout your careers and watching how the work you do benefits our society.”
Students from the MD Class of 2023 arrived at WMed in July 2019, just months before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a topic that Class of 2023 President Amy Lorber said was hard to revisit as she addressed her classmates from the stage at Miller.
“There was fear, pain, confusion, and, eventually, the weariness and exhaustion of it all,” Lorber said. “But I'm choosing to remember and share it now because of what it showed me about our class. Even though we were separated physically, our class was so effusive in offering our support to one another that we were never really alone. This group of people is aggressively willing to share their experiences and their vulnerabilities, to connect with one another and to tear down the false and dangerous facade of the invincible overachiever – something medical students are prone to fall into and feel trapped by. We are very real with one another and that has been a source of support for me throughout medical school. As a group, we can also definitely be cynical – often rightly so – but through all the stress, we never turned that cynicism on one another.
“Instead, we have channeled that at things we aim to change,” Lorber added. “Things we learned and experienced during medical school catalyzed our scrutiny of the way our society functions; it fueled action around social issues. We raised our voices against racism and turned that lens onto medicine and ourselves. Together, we added, and continue to add, our collective strength to bending the arc of the moral universe toward justice … On top of all that, we did the thing that brought us all here: we finished medical school – from the classroom, to sequestered apartments and bedrooms, then triumphantly back into the world of clinics and hospitals. We did all this because we are strong and ambitious. Because we can adapt and find resilience. And we did it all with openness and kindness.”
In her remarks to the Class of 2023, Dr. Wisdom told the students of the importance of being lifelong learners, of continuously climbing while also maintaining themselves with what she referred to as seven “pearls of wisdom.”
She reminded them of the importance to plan, to be pleasant and kind, to find their purpose in healthcare, to carve out a path in their careers, to problem solve with innovation, to leverage – and be mindful of – their privilege and bring others up with them along the way, and to practice the personal prevention of poor health.
“Surround yourself with those true friends and mentors and family now because that village will be so supportive and so important for you and your future,” Dr. Wisdom said.
“I opened with, ‘Do you see what I see?’,” Dr. Wisdom added. “And what I see is a class that will be exemplified in a few years as out-of-sight professionals … I see endless possibilities to making the world a better place so keep climbing but always maintain by leaning on the tremendous education you have received here at WMed and reflecting on the seven pearls of wisdom.”