School of Medicine honors 2025 graduates in emotional ceremony

Having already shown themselves to be resilient to challenges, Stanford Medicine’s newest graduates should make time to cultivate awe, curiosity, creativity, and kindness in their academic and professional futures.

That was the message that resonated through the graduation addresses at the School of Medicine’s commencement ceremony, held June 14 in Maples Pavilion on the Stanford University campus.

“Seek awe in your lives. Not awe as a vague sense of wonder, but as a real embodiment of experience,” said Lloyd Minor, MD, dean of the Stanford School of Medicine and vice president for medical affairs at Stanford University, in his address to the graduates. “It pulls us out of our own thoughts and notions into something larger, more connected.”

The ceremony honored the achievements of a graduating class that earned 421 degrees: 179 Master of Science, 27 Master of Science in physician assistant studies, 126 PhDs, and 89 MDs. The stands of Maples Pavilion were filled with their cheering families and friends.

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Several graduation speakers acknowledged the challenges that the newly minted scientists and health care providers are facing, including the effects of artificial intelligence on research and medicine, decreased funding, and faltering trust in science.

They’ll also be up against internal pressures, Minor noted. While it’s easy to feel compelled to chase achievements, seeking and appreciating experiences of awe can provide meaning in a way that checking boxes off a list does not, he said.

Practicing medicine and conducting scientific research offer ample opportunities for awe, Minor added: “Whether comforting a patient, peering into a microscope, poring over a dataset or solving a human problem no one has cracked before, your careers will bring you face to face with mystery, beauty and humanity.”

Resilience in the face of adversity

The graduating student speakers saluted the challenges their classmates faced as they pursued their education.

“The characters in my cohort are dynamic and unbelievably resilient,” said Chigozie Maduchukwu, MSPA, speaking of his fellow physician assistant graduates. “We’ve lost friends, family, mentors, and pets. We’ve battled with anxiety, depression, and chronic health issues. Still, we fought for our degrees. At the peak of resilience is my classmate, our class hero, who came back to finish her degree even after facing her brain cancer diagnosis.”

He was referring to Melanie Shojinaga, who later crossed the stage to receive her diploma to huge cheers from her cohort and the audience. Several physician assistant graduates honored her by decorating their mortarboards with stickers – featuring her brain (with the tumor) wearing a mortarboard of its own – made by Shojinaga’s sister.

Sarah Huang, receiving a master’s degree in human genetics and genetic counseling, spoke on behalf of the Master of Science degree recipients, describing how they had seen funding cuts and policy changes lead to shifts in research and patient care.

“We’ve been tasked to continue our fight for accessible, innovative health care despite unpredictable obstacles,” Huang said, adding that this unpredictability mirrors many patients’ experiences on their health journeys. “And yet, like them, we’ve persisted. To me, this feels meaningful, knowing that these experiences can shape us into more compassionate and resilient researchers, clinicians, and health care leaders.”

Elysse Grossi-Soyster, PhD, receiving a doctoral degree in microbiology and immunology, drew a parallel between the immune system, which “learns from its experiences and evolves its approaches” and fellow graduates, many of whom started their studies at Stanford Medicine in the midst of a global pandemic, under a sky that was orange from wildfires. Grossi-Soyster exhorted them to continue working together for change.

“Just as our immune system relies on a multitude of pathways and networks rather than the work of a single molecule, none of this work falls on the shoulders of a single person. We must act together no matter where our lives take us.”

Grossi-Soyster challenged fellow graduates to “mimic the hallmarks of our immune system by continuing to fight for the rights of our communities, [to] repair the damage we’ve already endured, rebuild trust in science and protect our freedoms well into the future, while also acknowledging the adaptations we’ve already made and staying open to future evolution.”

Speaker Jay Shah, MD, reminded his fellow new physicians that medicine is not just about knowing things, it’s also about being there for people in their most vulnerable moments. Shah told a story about witnessing a minor surgical procedure from two perspectives, first as a medical student and then as a patient. He noted that his surgeon paused before he went under anesthesia to offer reassurance that he would be well cared for. “That was maybe 30 seconds … but I still remember that, clear as day, four years later,” Shah said. “While we focus on treating [patients], they just want us to be present. Let’s sit down at eye level. Let’s ask about their worries, and let’s take that extra minute to answer that last question.”

A joyful song

Keynote speaker Bryant Lin, MD, clinical professor of medicine and director of the Medical Humanities and the Arts Program, encouraged the graduates to be curious, creative, and kind, and to seek happiness every day.

Lin is a primary care physician who was diagnosed last year with advanced metastatic lung cancer, despite never having smoked. Prior to his diagnosis, he co-founded Stanford Medicine’s Center for Asian Health Research and Education to shed light on conditions that disproportionately affect Asians, including never-smoker lung cancer. During fall quarter 2024, Lin taught a course for medical students and undergraduates – called From Diagnosis to Dialogue: A Doctor’s Real-Time Battle with Cancer – that shared his journey and offered students his unique perspective on cancer care.

In his speech, Lin expressed gratitude for the mentors, colleagues, and clinicians who have played key roles in his two decades at Stanford Medicine, as well as the work of the scientists whose discoveries are now prolonging his life.

“I’ve got cancer all over the place, but I feel great,” Lin said. “Research really has enabled me to be here. If you had told me … in 2002 that a patient with metastatic lung cancer that had spread to 50 spots in [the] brain would be giving a full-throated graduation address, I would not have believed you…. When you think of NIH funding being cut, think of patients. Think of people like me. I will be directly impacted by that generational loss of science and scientists.”

Lin and his wife, who was attending graduation, had a gift for all of the graduates: red notebooks and pens, which were waiting on their chairs at the ceremony. He directed them to use the notebooks for a few exercises. They began with writing their names, followed by, for the first time, the letters connoting their new credentials. (This drew a big cheer from the audience.)

Then, as Lin guided the graduates through other activities, he spoke about three sensibilities he hoped the graduates would prioritize in their lives: curiosity, creativity, and kindness. He spoke of how curiosity enabled him to form a special connection with a 100-year-old patient. He mentioned how much he valued creative work – specifically woodworking, a hobby he pursued with his wife. He concluded by speaking about his mother, who was attending the ceremony even though she is in her 80s and suffering from dementia.

“Even today, with her memory leaking away, she’s always polite, thanking everyone for their help with providing her food, with moving her to her chair, and taking off her shoes. My third hope for you is that you never forget to be kind like my mother,” Lin said to the graduates.

He then asked everyone at the ceremony to join him in one of the few ways he can still connect with his mother: through music.

The entire crowd joined Lin in two repetitions of the chorus of his mother’s favorite song, “You Are My Sunshine.” By the end, most in attendance were crying happy tears.

The speeches concluded, and the graduates strode one by one up the stairs to the stage to receive their diplomas. Several were accompanied by their young children.

At the end of the ceremony, the new PhD graduates recited the Stanford Biosciences Affirmation. “I will always be cognizant that my work is for the advancement of knowledge and the benefit of all humanity and our world,” they pledged.

Then the new PA and MD students recited the Stanford Medicine Affirmation to voice their commitment to their new professions: “I will hold all life dear, and let knowledge, wisdom, courage, and compassion guide my therapy.”

View a video of Melanie Shojinaga.

Read the speeches from Lloyd Minor and Bryant Lin.

View awards given to students, professors and staff.