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For Commencement this year, the student body has chosen Biana Roykh to address the class. She will speak at Commencement on June 17, and a transcript of her address appears below. In addition to Biana, there were two other deserving members of the Class of 2006 who submitted speeches. Since there will not be time for all three student leaders to speak at Commencement, we present their submissions electronically, below. I hope that everyone enjoys Commencement, and that all of you come back to visit us after you have launched what will undoubtedly be long and successful careers. Best regards,
Charles N. Bertolami, DDS, DMedSc Dean Class of 2006 Student Speeches Good afternoon friends and family of the Doctors of 2006. Thank you for sharing this magnificent day with all of us. As I pondered what a student should say as a commencement speaker for a class of dentists, nostalgia took me on a trip down commencement memory lane. In high school, we were inspired to continue our exploration of knowledge and push into higher education. In college, we were congratulated for our hard work and inspired to make a difference with our knowledge. And here we are today, at the end of the line of our education. Today we become doctors, health care providers for our communities. But still, what does one tell his colleagues on this memorable day? They say that a pearl is formed by a chronic irritation an oyster adapts to and deals with over time. Although I feel the irritation of dental school, I am yet to form pearls of experience or wisdom to share with my fellow colleagues today. But, what I can do is help you remember what the Class of 2006 was, what we are today, and what we will be tomorrow.
Thank You Good morning distinguished guests! I just wanted to start by thanking everyone for coming to SF on this foggy day, struggling with traffic and parking to celebrate this momentous occasion with us, an occasion that is the culmination of a journey which for many of us began with our going off to college and now ends here on the threshold of graduating from dental school. Today, we begin a new journey, it's called loan-repayment. "If I have seen further, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants." Conventional thought tells us that I am wearing this gown, sporting this cap, and accepting gifts made payable to Allen Cheng because we are celebrating the accomplishments of the dental class of 2006. However, in reality, the past four years of dental school, four or so years of undergrad, however many years of other schooling, aren't really OUR accomplishments at all. They were investments by our teachers, mentors, and families in us so that we would be equipped to go out and REALLY achieve. I'd like to take a moment to tell a story about my grandmother, a story that is similar in gravity if not in details to the stories of each of the families of my classmates. Born on May 9, 1911 in China, she grew up in an upper middle class family raised in the traditions of the time. She married my grandfather in 1930 and had four children. During the time she was my age, China was in considerable turmoil, with the ravages of World War II and an underground civil war impoverishing the people. My grandfather, a government official, was often away from the family dealing with political problems in the floundering new democratic government. That left my grandmother with the responsibility of raising and providing for her four children on her own, under the backdrop of daily air raids and threat of attacks from invading troops. On several occasions, she was forced to evacuate their home to avoid occupation. She, with her children in tow, fled the city of Nanking a few weeks before Japanese troops took it over and executed hundreds of thousands of civilians. As World War II wound down a new threat materialized for my family. Soon after China's emancipation from Japanese oppression, the underground civil war that had been brewing during WWII erupted. A grassroots movement of Communist Chinese took control of the country, and began the systematic elimination of all prominent members of the Nationalist party, which my grandfather was a part of. Again, my grandmother alone with her children had to flee, this time leaving country, possessions and family behind. They fled to Taiwan to start a new life from scratch. I imagine that my grandmother's dreams must have been shelved away and replaced with a singular purpose in life: to ensure the survival of her children so that they may have dreams and children of their own. I imagine she probably rarely ever craved "things" the way I often do. She probably never desired nice clothes, nice cars, or even nice dinners. All she had was her purpose; all she loved was her family and God. For the past four years, she had been growing more ill, her health rapidly deteriorating over the last year. Late last October, during a rare moment of clarity of mind since she had become ill, she brought my mother and father to her to discuss the plans for her departure. She asked that the officiating pastor use the funeral for one thing: to pray for her children and grandchildren so that they would come to know God. On November 16, 2005, we buried my grandmother. As I stood there in front of her casket to say a last farewell, thinking about how her last thoughts were not of fear of death, but of us, I found myself silenced and overwhelmed by the most unexpected feeling. The tears that welled up in my eyes were not of grief, but of shame. I was overcome by how complete my unworthiness was for the love she gave and the life she lived for me. I repeat this now not just to glorify my grandmother, but to illustrate a point by reminding everyone of us of where and who we came from. Up until this day, most of my colleagues and I have lived a life of PREPARATION for doing great things. We lived this life only by being lifted up by the sacrifices of those who loved us. Dr. Leon Assael, the editor of the Journal of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery called us the "Millennium Generation", comparing us to the generation of men and women during WWII in our aspirations to serve a higher purpose. I would have to humbly disagree. I will never know the kind of sacrifices that my grandmother or anyone from her generation had to make. I will never know the courage they had to have to find hope amidst the despair they faced. And I have never had to give up my dreams. So, I submit to you that today is not a celebration of the class of 2006, but a celebration of your hope in us. At this time, on behalf of all my class, I want to express our humble gratitude to every single person who loved us, cared for us, and inspired us so that we could be at the privileged position we enjoy now. If I started with a thank you, I'd like to end with a promise. The tremendous freedom that we have inherited compels us to live fearlessly for others. We MUST take the skills and resulting opportunities we have as trained health care providers, to not only pay back to our community, but to pay it FORWARD. Having spent the past four years with my fellow classmates in this institution, personally witnessing their selfless hearts already bearing fruit in their treatment of patients as well as their personal investment in philanthropic projects, I can confidently say that WE WILL. I am so encouraged by the men and women of this school, who go abroad to provide free dental work in third world countries, devote all their resources to developing non-profit organizations to support dental mission trips, spending the last years of their young adult life training in surgery so that they may return to their homeland to fix the faces they left behind, spending their last free summer in a lab furthering our scientific knowledge, and spending the rare and valuable spare hours away from school coming back to provide thousands of dollars worth of free dental care to the homeless of San Francisco. Yes, these are just a few of the real dreams and achievements of my classmates. They are the truest testimony of the greatest strength of this school, the social conscience that has been trumpeted by our faculty since the first day we set foot here as students. So, what began as a jest reveals itself to be truth. Today DOES mark the momentous beginning of our loan repayment, to make good on our debt to all of you. I'd like to close with these final words: I want to make it absolutely clear, that gifts in the form of cash or checks are still very much appreciated. Last night I was going to sleep and I thought to myself, tomorrow I am becoming a Doctor. But it really didn't happen overnight. It has been an exciting and challenging journey of 79 - pretty smart - good students, who became professionals. Four years ago, in our White Coat Ceremony, Dean Bertolami said to us: "there will be a time in the next four years when each one of you will wonder, what am I doing here?". That was the voice of experience. But he also said that we will have fun together, mature in our abilities and become self-fulfilled health care providers. Today we leave UCSF in comfort, knowing that we have met not just mentors and colleagues, but lifelong friends. There were many things we learned every year during dental school. First year we learned just how little sleep we can actually function on. Most of it was sleep lost over teeth waxing nightmares and late night Anatomy reviews. Our studies ranged from what cells look like under the microscope and what bugs populate our environment to how the human heart beats - it was like a season of Survivor - the Dental Edition. But many of us also showed the other side - the friendly, fun loving side. We celebrated many of our exams dancing the worries away at very crowded San Francisco hot spots. It was a year of new friendships, new loves. We returned from our last long summer vacation, tanned and full of new energy to begin our second year. No longer would we be the new kids on the block, now we were the resident lab rats. We worked diligently with Dr. Dellinges on our demanding dentures. We huffed and puffed as we purfed and packed those precocious premolars. We carved and casted, we glazed and invested our precious metals into works of art. Third year we put on our clinic gowns and pretended we knew something. We met new faculty and staff, who trusted in us and guided our first patient care experiences. I remember doing an exam on a patient and after I presented her with her treatment plan options, she said to me "whatever you recommend, Doctor". It was an amazing feeling to have someone place trust and confidence in you about their own health. This year was a year of maturing and realizing how important our role is in our community. In our last, but not least, year of dental school, we started clinic with new confidence and independence. We were less and less nested under the wings of our faculty, and as the year progressed we became peers and friends with our teachers. We went on externships to underserved areas and provided dental care to children and adults of disadvantaged backgrounds. This was an opportunity to advance our skills and step outside of the protected school environment - we were in the real world now. With the end in sight, we worked hard to fulfill all of our ever-changing requirements, even when we weren't really sure what they were. But despite all the challenges of 4th year, the most difficult one yet has been saying goodbye to our favorite patients, our instructors, our staff, and each other. This is the story of our class' journey. I am proud to say that we have a thirst for knowledge that has led to unprecedented numbers going into specialty programs, general practice residencies, and pursuing work opportunities that will further our skills and make us better clinicians. Our Class has handled many changes in stride; changes in our board exam, our curriculum, our record keeping and many others too numerous to list. We are a very diverse and hard working group of people. We demand perfection from ourselves and others, especially others. But above all, we are dedicated to our cause - compassion for others and enthusiasm for the dental profession. There is a reason why the color of the sash chosen to represent dentistry is Lilac. Lilac is a "combination of the courage of red and the wisdom of blue". We have the courage to take upon ourselves the well being of our patients, and the wisdom to better our profession. Our dear faculty, today we stand proud before you with deepest gratitude for your patience, your knowledge and your continued encouragement throughout the last four years. We loved you, we complained to you and sometimes we even disagreed. But in the end, I know we wouldn't want to have it any other way. Our dear families, you have traveled this road with us with love and support. You have made education an important priority in our lives. In the words of Nelson Mandela, "it is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, the son of the mine worker can become the head of the mine, that the child of a farmer can become a president of a great nation ... " Moms and dads, it is because of you that we are receiving this great honor tonight. Today, we are no longer wondering what we are doing here. Today we are becoming dentists. Throughout our training, we have learned that dentistry is a demanding field, not just physically and emotionally, but it is also a craft that requires extreme meticulousness. We are accustomed to thinking in millimeters and have been known to spark heated debates over tiny mathematical numbers. Don't get caught up in it. Don't forget how beautiful and expansive the world is - embrace it. Hold on to your enthusiasm. Inspire others ... and if all else fails, REFER. Congratulations My Fellow Graduates! |
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