May 23, 2024 — Four years ago, dozens of first-year medical students at the University of Florida met their peers and professors online, deciding to join the health care industry during a time of profound uncertainty, with the realities of a pandemic altering ways of life across the nation.

After an unprecedented medical school experience, these students gained not just the medical knowledge needed to become bright physicians but also lessons on the importance of community and connection.

On May 18, 141 members of the UF medical school class of 2024 passed the finish line on their educational journeys toward becoming physicians, crossing the stage at the Curtis M. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts to officially receive their medical degrees.

The commencement ceremony, attended by loved ones, students, faculty, and staff, celebrated four years of hard work as the budding physicians learned the information, skills, and characteristics necessary to flourish in the field of medicine.

In an address to the soon-to-be graduates, Interim Dean Jennifer Hunt, M.D., M.Ed., shared  how her own experiences over the past four years  helped shape her into a better leader and advocate for patients. As the physician director of a makeshift COVID-19 triage unit in 2020, she led a group of volunteers who provided swab testing to patients, dressed in a pair of clogs that carried her more than 17,000 steps per day for five months.

“I can remember exactly what the edge of my comfort zone felt like, and somehow my feet in those shoes stepped boldly forward,” Hunt said. “And I think everyone in health care stepped fully forward at that time, including all of you. And here we are today. You’re fully educated, you’re incredibly well prepared for your future, and we are incredibly proud of you as your mentors, faculty, teachers.”

She reminded the students of a key to success that Jay Lynch, M.D., a professor and the assistant dean of admissions, shared during their last lecture: great things happen when you step out of your comfort zone.

“Greatness happens in the space between the known and the unknown,” Hunt said. “So, when you feel that paradoxical feeling of a mixture of joy and fear interwoven together, it just may be the one best sign that you are doing exactly the right, great work.”

Perri Klass, M.D., a professor of journalism and pediatrics at New York University, served as the keynote speaker during the ceremony, honoring the students for their perseverance, commitment, and service to others.

“You’ve trained in difficult times, you have special strengths, memories, and knowledge,” she said. “You have already been brave, dedicated, and smart, and your courage, dedication, and intelligence will matter even more in the years ahead. Members of the class of 2024, the world needs you. The world is lucky to have you.”

In a speech to his classmates, faculty mentors, and loved ones, Jeff Dela Cruz, M.D. ’24, president of the graduating class, shared that although the preceding four years were filled with a lot more studying and a lot less sleep than the students could have predicted, they managed to have fun along the way. From playing games of pickup basketball to putting on temporary tattoo sleeves, the group had morphed, as one class member put it, from strangers, to friends, to family.

“I can’t think of a better way to describe what’s happened in our class over these past four years,” said Dela Cruz, who begins his orthopaedic surgery residency training at UF in July. “It has been the greatest honor of my life to be a member of this family and to learn and grow alongside you all. You have filled my medical school journey with way more laughs than tears. And if there were tears, they were always happy tears.

so grateful that I get to keep so many of you around in Gainesville after graduation, and at the same time I’m so sad that there will be some distance separating the rest of us,” he continued. “Despite that, I will always remember what we did here and what we built here together. You will all change the world.”