HSC components prepare for commencement

(COLLEGE STATION, TX) — The College of Medicine and the School of Rural Public Health components of the Texas A&M Health Science Center will host commencement ceremonies Saturday, May 19, while the Baylor College of Dentistry in Dallas will have graduation Thursday, May 17.

Baylor College of Dentistry graduates will receive degrees at 7 p.m. at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas. The keynote speaker is John Findley, D.D.S., American Dental Association 15th District trustee and former Dallas County Dental Society president. Seventy-seven D.D.S. candidates will participate, 27 dental hygiene students will receive B.S. degrees, and 21 graduate students in various specialty certificate programs will be recognized. Nine M.S. degrees will be awarded – six M.S. in Oral Biology with specialty certificate, two M.S. in Dental Hygiene and one M.S. in Oral Biology.

Meanwhile, students from the College of Medicine at College Station and Temple, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Dallas, College Station and Houston, and the School of Rural Public Health at College Station will receive their degrees at two different times Saturday.

U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, will deliver the commencement address for the School of Rural Public Health in exercises at 10 a.m. at the Thomas R. Frymire Auditorium in the Leonore and Walter Annenberg Presidential Conference Center in the George Bush Library Complex. Eighty-seven students – among them the school’s first Ph.D. graduates – will be honored, including 66 M.P.H., 14 M.H.A., 4 M.S.P.H. and 3 Ph.D. recipients.

The College of Medicine commencement exercise is at 2 p.m. at Rudder Auditorium on the Texas A&M University campus in College Station. Speaker is John C. Starr, M.D., professor of internal medicine in the Division of Allergy and Immunology at HSC-COM and Scott & White Hospital and Clinic in Temple. Seventy-eight students will receive their M.D. degree, and 26 will receive their Ph.D. (18 students), M.D./Ph.D. (5) or M.S. (3) degree through the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

Admission to all commencement ceremonies is free and does not require a ticket.

The Texas A&M Health Science Center provides the state with health education, outreach and research. Its six components located in communities throughout Texas are Baylor College of Dentistry, the College of Medicine, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the Institute of Biosciences and Technology, the Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy, and the School of Rural Public Health.