NUTLEY, NJ — Following a June 8 commencement ceremony, 63 students from the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine are now doctors and are beginning their residencies to start their careers. The commencement’s keynote was delivered by Cornel West, the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary.
The medical students came from the inaugural 2018 cohort of the medical school in a four-year program and the 2019 cohort, who finished their medical degree in an accelerated three-year program.
“We believe that to improve health care in America, we have to start in how we educate physicians, to teach them to focus on prevention as much as healing,’’ Hackensack Meridian Health CEO Robert C. Garrett said. “I am so proud of our graduates and know they will transform health care and always put patients at the center of their practice.’’
“We are thrilled that this school’s impact continues to grow,” said Dr. Jeffrey Boscamp, the interim dean of the school and a professor of pediatrics. “Sending such promising talented doctors out into the world to spread our culture of compassionate and humanistic care is what it is all about.”
More than half of the graduates will serve residencies in Hackensack Meridian Health hospitals. Residency institutions for this year include: Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania; the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; and the Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education.
Last year, the inaugural commencement ceremony featured the first 18 students from the inaugural class who graduated in the three-year track, then went on to residencies across the Hackensack Meridian Health network.
Photos Courtesy of Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine