May 23, 2025 — Surrounded by loved ones, 155 students in the largest medical school class in the University of Florida College of Medicine’s history crossed the stage of the Curtis M. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts May 17 as medical doctors for the first time.

The joyous occasion marked years of determination and dedication as the students learned the skills needed to become capable and compassionate physicians. This summer, they will begin the next chapter of their careers as medical residents at some of the nation’s most elite institutions.

Gathering for one last time as a class, the students heard from peers and faculty about the journey and the road ahead for the UF M.D. Class of 2025.

In an address to the students, UF College of Medicine interim Dean Jennifer Hunt, M.D., M.Ed., shared the story of her son, who texted her after going paragliding in Colombia.

“It was terrible and spectacularly beautiful,” he wrote, “I am so glad I did it, and I’m pretty sure I never want to do it again.”

Hunt said her son’s feelings from that experience reminded her of medical residency.

“It’s a little terrifying,” she said. “It’s incredibly beautiful and it’s an essential experience that you probably won’t want to do again. Family, friends, mentors — our graduates are standing on that precipice. They’re standing on that mountain of their career, and we are launching them into perhaps the most uncertain times that medicine and science have ever seen. It will be terrifying, and it will be impossibly beautiful.”

While Hunt assured the graduates that they are prepared for what lies ahead, she reminded them of the importance of having something in your life that keeps you grounded and centered, something you “keep in your suitcase.”

She pulled out a suitcase on stage and opened it up to reveal a cream-colored quilt she had crafted during her residency.

“I remember making this, sewing and crafting and just being at peace,” she said. “And I remember what happened before that. I remember the sleepless nights, and the long days and returning to that centering and grounding of making something, of creating something. And I want each of you to think about what that is, for you. Make sure to leave a little room to pack in joy, to create time and space so you can return to the things that energize you and refresh you.”

The Class of 2025 selected a member of the college faculty, Shelley Collins, M.D., FAAP, the senior associate dean of educational affairs and a professor in the Department of Pediatrics, as this year’s commencement speaker.

Collins, who earlier in the spring became the college’s first three-time consecutive honoree of the Hippocratic Award, bestowed annually by graduating medical students to an exemplary teacher and mentor who embodies the ideals of the Hippocratic oath, expressed deep humility for the honor.

“What we have taught you goes deeper than knowing the medicine,” she said. “What we have instilled in you is the importance of caring deeply about your patients, to get involved.”

She shared 10 life lessons she’s learned from her time as a pediatrician, a wife and a mother, including being kind, being present, having a sense of humor, understanding that failure is a lesson and betting on yourself.

“It doesn’t get easier,” Collins said. “At every stage of your careers, you will have to learn new skills, then as soon as we see you can handle what we’ve thrown at you, we give you something else to learn. There are no shortcuts, but you do learn how to handle hard, better.”

Class of 2025 President Olivier Barolette, M.D. ’25, who will begin his internal medicine residency at Duke University Medical Center in July, addressed his peers for one last time during the ceremony.

A lot had changed during the Class of 2025’s four years of medical school, he noted: Multiple classmates got married and had children, and the artificial intelligence large language model ChatGPT — which has become a commonplace part of daily life — hadn’t existed when the class attended orientation.

Drawing from his own experiences, Barolette shared points of wisdom for his classmates to carry into their careers and the rest of their lives, including being yourself, thinking about yourself less, cherishing community and continuing to preserve humanity.

“Since I started medical school, I contemplated on the purpose of medicine,” he said. “Why is it we agreed to take on so much debt, study so hard, work long hours, delay gratification and all the other things we do to service the patients? Is it truly just a cliche line about liking science and wanting to help people that we put in our personal statements? I contend that in one way or another, most of us truly pursue a career in medicine because unlike many other fields, medicine preserves the very things that make us unique, humanity itself.

“Preventing mortality might look like getting a heart failure patient on the right treatment, but what we are truly doing is giving a grandfather a couple of more years to see his grandchild graduate. Improving quality of life might look like an ENT surgically removing nasal polyps, but deeper down, you’re allowing a young girl to smell her mother’s famous apple pie for the very first time.

“At the end of the day, we’re preserving and restoring the human experience in the lives of our patients in a world that is broken … and in doing so, you’re doing your part in making the world more whole.”