LECOM at Elmira recognizes first graduating class
ELMIRA, N.Y. (WETM) – LECOM at Elmira recognized its inaugural graduating class on April 12, 2024. The graduates were called up one by one and presented with a personalized name plate for their careers in medicine. Dean Dr. Richard Terry and other faculty spoke about their experiences with the graduating class and wished them well.
“We were just all sitting here less than four years ago; socially distanced with masks on and now to celebrate this achievement with our faculty, with all of you our honored guests here. Here’s this remarkable achievement, you graduating from LECOM at Elmira with lots of challenges. A pandemic. What you all showed was perseverance in kind of getting through all of this and getting started. You wore masks. You really didn’t get to know each other, the social distancing until the second year. Limited connections with our faculty, our staff and your friends and here you are. Your resilience, dedication, determination and here you are. You’re graduating,” said Dr. Richard Terry.
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“Each of you have become like a beacon of hope by bringing positive change not only here, but to all of the places you’ve rotated and had an impact. In fact, through the entire region. Really upstate New York, downstate for those who are there and Pennsylvania,” said Terry.
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“So, it’s like a culmination of four years of both working in a classroom with learning and spending two years in hospitals. Doing rotations, learning what kind of medicine you want to get into and then the grueling process of applying to residency and finally matching and knowing where you’re going to spend the next three to seven years of your life,” said graduate Joseph Sarow.
“A lot of long nights, hours studying and then after the second year it kinda gets better moving into third. You have time in the hospital, which is still the same time commitment, but doing things that you enjoy. Seeing patients and seeing how what you’re learning affects the people around you and the people you’re going to take care of in the future,” said Sarow.
The commencement ceremony for LECOM’s class of 2024 is on May 26.
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