This is the 38th commencement event for the School of Medicine. The Class of 2010 began its studies on the Davis campus in 2006. Within a few months, student classrooms and other medical school facilities were permanently relocated to a new building on the university's Sacramento campus near UC Davis Medical Center.
Scott Christensen, a 1991 graduate of the school, is this year's keynote speaker. As a UC Davis professor of internal medicine, hematology and oncology, Christensen specializes in treating AIDS-related malignancies and metastatic breast cancer. He serves as director of the university's Cancer Care Network, which uses telecommunications technologies to link specialists and cancer research experts throughout Northern California.
The student speaker representing the Class of 2010 is Colin Randau, who will continue his medical training at the University of Utah and hopes to specialize in radiology. Randau says his most memorable experience in medical school occurred on Match Day this year, when he and his fourth-year classmates learned where they would be continuing their medical educations as they begin their focus on a specific area of medicine.
"Seeing the expressions and emotions of my classmates when they found out where they would be training was just priceless," said Randau. "It was a really great validation for our four years of hard work in medical school."
By tradition, the ceremony includes several special awards, including the School of Medicine Medal, which honors the student who best exhibits the qualities of leadership, scholarship and respect for human life. The award is determined by a special honors committee made up of faculty members and student representatives.
In addition to the M.D. degree, 25 medical students also will receive Master of Public Health degrees and three other students will receive Master of Health Informatics degrees. These graduate programs draw upon the multiple strengths of UC Davis in public health, epidemiology, rural health, occupational and environmental health, telemedicine and other research and academic studies. UC Davis developed its combined degree programs to address the growing need for health-care practioners who can lead state and national efforts to track, manage and prevent injuries and disease, as well as work with large amounts of health information and data to enhance the practice of medicine and improve health for all.
The UC Davis School of Medicine is among the nation's leading medical schools, recognized for its specialty- and primary-care programs. The school offers fully accredited master's degree programs in public health and in informatics, and its combined M.D.-Ph.D. program is training the next generation of physician-scientists to conduct high-impact research and translate discoveries into better clinical care. Along with being a recognized leader in medical research, the school is committed to serving underserved communities and advancing rural health.