'6T7'

A warm June sun:

Orange orb on cloudless blue,

Shadow towers on campus green hue.

Two lines, young faces, energized, eager, wide-eyed.

Onlooker faces that nurtured, encouraged; now flush with pride.

Today black gowns, soft, loose, academic-rank adorned.

Tomorrow starched white coats, doctors of medicine.

Graduation. Convocation. Celebration.

We are the class of 6T7.

A late-spring sun.

Life-spawning, nurturing rays

Guide our paths, energize our days.

We scattered like leaves, some in circles, some with direction,

Landing in hamlets and cities, and some, foreign nations.

We marry, birth children, love, laugh and live.

We give of ourselves on earth, and some called to heaven.

For everyone there is a season.

We are the class of 6T7.

A near-solstice sun.

Light the broad shoulders

Of medical giants who taught us to look farther, act bolder,

Be better, invent the future: our role in succession.

With art and science, with pride of profession

We cared, healed, comforted, and wept in empathy.

We innovated, discovered, and moved the horizons of medicine.

Clinicians. Scientists. Scholars.

We are the class of 6T7.

A fiftieth sun.

New physicians hear their names,

Feel the fur hood, move the tassel, say the oath, take the reins.

We are their teachers, mentors, role models, and inspiration

To be the keepers of knowledge, the imaginers of medical transformation.

We pass the torch, aflame with new knowledge, but rich with open questions

To a new generation: quintessence of medicine, lead the procession.

Serve brave, serve unafraid, as we age and fade.

We are the class of 6T7.

Ronald C. Strickler, MD MBA - June 2017