{"id":60100,"date":"2012-05-15T08:45:46","date_gmt":"2012-05-15T12:45:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=60100"},"modified":"2012-05-15T09:23:16","modified_gmt":"2012-05-15T13:23:16","slug":"future-awaits-uconn-health-center-class-of-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2012\/05\/future-awaits-uconn-health-center-class-of-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"Future Awaits UConn Health Center Class of 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"
[flickr-gallery id=”72157629726841942″]<\/div>\n

Members of the Class of 2012 are celebrating their achievement and looking forward to the next phase of their lives.<\/p>\n

Or, as medical student speaker Christian Kakowski described it, \u201creal, actual financial liberation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kakowski is one of 89 medical students who, along with 47 dental and 30 graduate students, received their degrees May 13 at the Connecticut Convention Center. It was the 41st UConn Health Center commencement and the first for Dr. Frank Torti, less than two weeks into his tenure as executive vice president for health affairs and medical school dean.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe professions you\u2019re about to embark upon are not, in fact, \u2018jobs,\u2019\u201d Torti told the graduates. \u201cEach is a calling.\u201d<\/p>\n

The commencement speaker was Dr. Edison Liu, president and chief executive officer of The Jackson Laboratory, which has partnered with the state to build a personalized medicine facility on the Health Center campus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cChange will be much faster than ever, and much faster than you could imagine,\u201d Liu said. \u201cYou are precisely the agents of change that our society needs so desperately. Why is that so? It\u2019s because you\u2019re all trained in science, you\u2019re trained in technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liu reminded the graduates that their training will continue for the rest of their careers, and spoke of the importance of resiliency.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeek small victories that move you closer to your goals,\u201d Liu said. \u201cDon\u2019t despair should you occasionally miss your mark. Be happy with each small advance and learn from each loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

His closing remark, \u201cGo forth, do good, and make a hell of a difference,\u201d was met with enthusiastic applause.<\/p>\n

Dental student speaker Marcus Moss expressed a similar sentiment, telling his classmates, \u201cBe responsible. Take this amazing opportunity in front of you. Never stop pushing. This world needs you more now than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Torti acknowledged the two men who shared the VP for health affairs and medical school dean roles on an interim basis before his arrival, UConn President Emeritus Phil Austin and Dr. Bruce Liang, director of the Calhoun Cardiology Center. All three men were active participants in commencement exercises.<\/p>\n

Then Torti told the students, \u201cYou are prepared. You are ready. But most of all, remember this: You have always been, and will continue to be, part of UConn.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Follow\u00a0the UConn Health Center<\/a> on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Twitter<\/a> and\u00a0YouTube<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eighty-nine medical, 47 dental, and 30 graduate students received their degrees at the Health Center\u2019s 41st commencement on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":60179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,179,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[57,2010],"class_list":["post-60100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gallery","category-uconn-health","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-07 09:25:39","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60100"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60131,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60100\/revisions\/60131"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/60179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60100"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=60100"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=60100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}