For immediate release: May 16, 2008
Contact: Emily Wofford Cobb
Office 775-784-6006
Mobile 775-338-5119
ecobb@medicine.nevada.edu

School of Medicine holds hooding ceremony

Class of 2008 enjoys commencement ceremony, prepares for residency

RENO, Nev.— Commencement ceremonies for the University of Nevada School of Medicine Class of 2008 were held this afternoon at Lawlor Events Center in Reno. The 49 graduating students celebrated completion of their medical education by receiving their academic hoods and reciting the Hippocratic Oath, which reaffirms their commitment to the medical profession.

           Daniel Spogen, M.D., professor and chair of the Reno family and community medicine department, served as the ceremony keynote speaker and offered the newly minted physicians praise for their past academic accomplishments and words of encouragement for their future endeavors.

           The Class of 2008 will have a short break before they begin their residency training programs across the country in July. This year’s graduating class continued Nevada’s tradition of placing in some of the nation’s most competitive residency programs. Forty-eight students matched with 29 different residency institutions across the nation and will enter specialties ranging from dermatology and orthopaedics to otolaryngology and anesthesiology.

          Seventeen graduates will stay in the state to enter into residency programs offered through the University of Nevada School of Medicine. Nearly one-third of this year’s graduating class matched with residency programs not currently offered within the state. Students matching with some of the most competitive residency training programs include placements with University of California, Davis Medical Center; UCLA Medical Center, University of Southern California and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, NH.

           In addition to celebrating the graduation of the Class of 2008, the School of Medicine honored several faculty and community members who have supported the philosophy and goals of the medical school and have made significant contributions to the healthcare field in Nevada.

As the state’s only public medical school, the University of Nevada School of Medicine has been a leader in healthcare, medical education and research in Nevada since 1969. The School of Medicine includes 16 clinical departments including family medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, internal medicine, surgery, and psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and five nationally recognized departments in basic science including microbiology and biomedical engineering. The more than 185 doctors of University Health System, the school’s clinical practice, offer care in more than 40 medical specialties and subspecialties with eight physician offices in the Reno/Sparks area and seven in Las Vegas. The school is committed to a best practices approach to medicine and is dedicated to exceptional healthcare for Nevada now and in the future. For more information visit www.medicine.nevada.edu.