Led by a bagpipe and drum corps, 40 University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix medical students will process through downtown Phoenix to commencement exercises on Wednesday, May 9, at 3 p.m.
The procession will begin on campus, 550 E. Van Buren St., at 3 p.m. and end at the West Building of the Phoenix Convention Center, 100 N. 3rd St., Phoenix. Commencement will take place on the third floor of the convention center’s West Building.
This marks the second graduation of UA medical students in Phoenix, which before 2007 was the largest city in the nation without an allopathic (MD-granting) medical school.
The ceremony will include an address from Arizona Board of Regents chairman Rick Myers and graduating senior Zachary Ortiz. The students will process, led by a bagpipe and drum corps, from the Phoenix Biomedical Campus at Seventh Street and Van Buren to the Convention Center at 3 p.m. A special hooding ceremony and the recitation of the oath will cap the commencement in the West Building of the Convention Center in downtown Phoenix.
Regent Myers was appointed in January 2010 to the Board of Regents, which oversees all three state universities in Arizona. He was elected chair earlier this year. Myers worked for IBM for 25 years, serving as vice president and general manager of IBM Tucson before retiring in 2003. He currently serves on the board of directors of the Critical Path Institute and was its chief operating officer for more than three years. He sits on numerous other boards and was given the Greater Tucson Leadership “Community Leadership Award” in 2004.
The University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix opened in 2007 as a way for the state to address the critical shortage of physicians in Arizona. More than half of the first two groups of graduates from the Phoenix campus are staying in Arizona for their residencies and a similar number are pursuing primary care specialties.
For more information, contact:
Al Bravo, Associate Director Public Affairs
The University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix
550 E. Van Buren St., Room 1372, Phoenix, AZ 85004-2230
(602) 827-2022 (office)