Julio Frenk, dean of HSPH, opened the 2010 commencement ceremony on May 27 by observing that for the day’s graduates “very few moments in life combine such intense feelings of accomplishment with a sense of restlessness, anticipation and perhaps even a bit of trepidation about what lies ahead.”
“You are the next generation of public health leaders,” Frenk said. “You are brimming with immense talent and accomplishment. It is my most fervent wish that your years at Harvard School of Public Health and your continued association with us will give you the capacity to produce knowledge; to recreate it in all those with whom you work, whether it be students or government leaders or the general public; and to translate that knowledge for the betterment of our common human experience.”
In the commencement address, Howard Koh, U.S. assistant secretary for health, exhorted the graduates to combine knowledge with wisdom.
“Please remember that while the mind can be a magnificent and brilliant tool, in the end it is merely an instrument,” said Koh, who was named by President Barack Obama to the federal public health position last year after six years at HSPH. He also served as Massachusetts Public Health Commissioner from 1997 to 2003.
“What matters more is the content of your character and the spirit of your soul,” Koh said. “And herein lies the profound difference between being smart and being wise.”
Student speaker Steven Edward John Moylan, who was awarded an MPH, exemplified the type of passion that Koh addressed. While an undergraduate, Moylan narrowly escaped serious injury when a bomb went off near him while he was in Indonesia. It caused him o change his career path to medicine, and he began working with indigenous populations in rural Australia. That work led him to the field of public health.
“Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises,” Moylan said. “Those words for me sum up the goal of public health. Public health isn’t just about fixing problems, or treating infections or preventing disease. It’s about creating opportunities: opportunities to be healthy, opportunities to live in just and free societies, opportunities to use your talents to the full, to realize your potential and to fulfill your dreams.”
He concluded by issuing a call to action: “Among us sit the future champions of public health research, the directors of health organizations and the leaders of communities and nations. … If together we make the commitment here today, to strive for a world where all people get the opportunity to pursue their dreams, you never know what might happen.”
At the ceremony, students from 52 countries, 39 U.S. states and Puerto Rico received degrees. Six out of every 10 members of the Class of 2010 are women.
In all, 509 degrees were awarded: 14 Doctors of Philosophy, three Doctors of Public Health, 51 Doctors of Science, 14 Masters of Arts, 268 Masters of Public Health and 159 Masters of Science. A video and slideshow appear online at http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/commencement.
