CLASS OF 2012

Dear New Colleague,

We welcome you to the College of Medicine of the Medical University of South Carolina. As you probably know you have proven yourself, to our satisfaction, to be the kind of person who will be an excellent physician. There remains only the four years of further education until you will become one of the worlds most needed and greatest resource, a physician. To say that our state, country and indeed the world look to us for help is an understatement. 

It is our intent during your educational process to equip you with the knowledge, the skills and the humility required to serve your fellow man. You need to come prepared to change more than you have in any other educational pursuit of your life. You will grow in many ways, but none more important than in understanding that your learning will never end as you enter the profession of medicine. If we teach you that learning is something that is never finished, then we will have done our work well as the faculty. The most important thing I hope that you learn during the four years is that medicine is a privilege and that it begins and ends with service to others. This is why you will endure the long hours, the hard work and the endless number of obligations – all of which require sacrifice on your part and your family and they will be the essence of your life’s work. It all begins in the first year and never ends until the time of retirement. It is a calling of great personal sacrifice, but of unbelievable reward from helping others. 

I wish you all well - we have enormous confidence in each entering student and welcome you as a colleague. You represent the next generation of physicians to graduate from our very old and excellent College of Medicine. Congratulations and God speed.