Adriel Barrios-Anderson will deliver the student address at the MD Class of 2022 Commencement ceremony.
Two years ago—just as the members of this year’s Medical School graduating class were set to begin the clinical portion of their training—the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, and the hospitals where students were scheduled to train were overwhelmed. The situation has stabilized, but the pandemic isn’t over. Next month, the MD Class of 2022 will again head into hospitals and medical centers, this time as resident physicians with hard-earned medical degrees.
In addition to their formal training and education, this year’s class of new doctors will leave The Warren Alpert Medical School with something unexpected, says Adriel Barrios-Anderson ’17 MD’22. They’ll have gained the resilience and preparation that can come only from the experience of working under trying conditions, in chaotic and often perilous times.
“Something that’s become really clear over the past couple of years is how uncertain the science of medicine can be, and how uncertain our futures can be, especially as we were thrust into this pandemic,” Barrios-Anderson says.
At the Medical School’s Commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 29, Barrios-Anderson will deliver a student address titled “Experts in Uncertainty.” He will share his thoughts on how being forged in the crucible of COVID-era training can shape this new generation of doctors.
“As we are about to embark on this next step in in in our careers, I think many of us are feeling a lot of uncertainty around that,” he says. “I hope to first acknowledge those feelings and then inspire members of our class to recognize that being trained in a very uncertain world and as part of a very uncertain health care framework is actually a strength that will help us navigate the future.”
