Texas A&M Health Science Center components ready 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 20, while the Baylor College of Dentistry in Dallas will have graduation Wednesday, May 17.

Baylor College of Dentistry graduates will receive their degrees at a 7 p.m. ceremony at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas. The keynote speaker is Bruce Graham, D.D.S., M.S., M.Ed., dean of the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry. Seventy-seven D.D.S. candidates will participate, 28 dental hygiene students will receive B.S. degrees, and 25 graduate students in various specialty certificate programs will be recognized. Also, six M.S. degrees will be awarded, and one student will receive an M.S. degree through the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

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

Fifty-eight students from the School of Rural Public Health will be honored in commencement exercises at 10 a.m. at the Leonore and Walter Annenberg Presidential Conference Center in the George Bush Library Complex. This includes 49 M.P.H. recipients, eight M.H.A. recipients and one M.S.P.H. recipient. Delivering the keynote address is Allan B. Steckler, Ph.D., professor of health behavior and health education in the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The College of Medicine commencement exercise is at 2 p.m. at Rudder Auditorium on the Texas A&M University campus in College Station. Commencement speaker is John R. Stone, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.P., F.A.C.C., physician and philosopher at Tuskegee University National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care. He also is associate professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine, Nursing and Allied Health and an assistant professor of philosophy. Fifty-nine students will receive their M.D. degree, and four will receive their Ph.D. 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 School of Rural Public Health, and the Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy.