Our USC Commencement on May 16th, 2008 will herald a significant transition for our senior classes of young doctors, specialists, graduate students, advanced programs, and dental hygienists—a time for reflection, celebration, and anticipation.  

The “Commencement Process” is the academic ritual of moving or transferring knowledge, innovations and discovery into society each year.   

In the example of our School of Dentistry, this means the improvement in knowledge and technology that will enhance clinical health care throughout Southern California, California, the Western States of the United States, and around the world.  

Our graduating health professionals (dental specialists and advanced programs, DDS academic program, Physical Therapy and occupational therapy, dental hygiene and graduate students) transition from their academic experiences to become the newest of beginning clinicians and scholars invested with a foundation to build upon for a lifetime.  

We wish each of them the very best of success as they continue to grow, learn, gain experience and shape their chosen profession. 

The May 16th Commencement Celebration is also very special for me. It is a very special opportunity for me to share your pride and accomplishments—the graduates who we are celebrating, their family support that has made this all possible, and the remarkably talented faculty and staff of the USC School of Dentistry. I am very proud to be part of the TROJAN FAMILY! 

May 2008 is also the eight-year anniversary of the release of the first-ever Surgeon General’s Report on Oral Health in America—a science-based document that heralds health promotion, risk assessment and disease prevention, diagnostics, treatments and therapeutics throughout the lifespan—from prenatal to the elderly stages of life.   

This document applauds the clinical excellence in oral health care that is readily accessed by two-thirds of our society, yet painfully cites that almost one-third of all Americans, and 34% of all Californians, do not access oral health care. What an opportunity for expanding oral health for ALL people. 

May was a Roman goddess and her name is given to the fifth month of the Gregorian calendar. May is also considered “the early vigorous blooming part of human life.” Indeed! And Commencement Week is filled with blossoming expectations for each of us as we ponder our future. For our new graduates the future holds enormous opportunities, as they pursue their activities as health professionals with an emphasis upon oral health promotion, disease prevention, diagnostics, treatments and therapeutics.  

These new young doctors and dental hygienists will seek careers in the private and public sectors of oral health professions, and many will continue their formal education and training in a number of special focus areas. All of us in the USC dental community wish these highly talented people our best wishes and hopes for their continued success. Cheers!