School of Medicine Graduates Newest Class of Hoya Doctors
Posted in News Stories | Tagged Commencement 2025
(May 19, 2025) — Before dispersing to start their residencies at hospitals across the country as Hoya physicians, the 182 members of the Georgetown University School of Medicine’s Class of 2025 came together one final time as fellow students during their May 18 commencement ceremony on the Healy Lawn.
The class of 106 women and 76 men received their Doctor of Medicine degrees May 19 during commencement exercises in front of historic Healy Hall while joyful family, friends and loved ones looked on. Numerous dual degrees were also conferred including six MD/PhD degrees, four MD/MBA degrees and an MD/MPH degree.
As she prepared for graduation day, student council class president Raksha Pothapragada (M’25), noted that her class entered medical school at a historic time in 2021 during the COVID pandemic, but overcame the challenge.
“Over the past few years, we’ve pushed ourselves academically, celebrated countless milestones, and fostered a close-knit community built on resilience, passion, and shared purpose,” she said. “And while we now set off in all directions — chasing dreams and beginning new chapters — we carry Georgetown with us. No matter where life takes us, this place, and the people we became here, will always feel like home.”
Addressing the student body, the School of Medicine’s Executive Dean Norman J. Beauchamp Jr., MD, MHS, acknowledged the presence of self-doubt as the graduates begin their residency training.
“You’ll be standing outside a patient’s room and you’ll ask yourself, ‘Are you ready? Do I know enough? I’m their doctor now.’”
Beauchamp reminded the graduates, “The patient and their family won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Too many people struggle in their time of illness and they feel alone and you can change all that.”
Cura Personalis
Victor J. Dzau, MD, president of the National Academy of Medicine and vice chair of the National Research Council, delivered the commencement address after receiving Georgetown’s highest honor — an honorary degree.
“In recognition of his career-long commitment to improve the field of science and its impact on people’s lives the world over, Georgetown University, with admiration and appreciation, bestows upon Dr. Victor Dzau the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa,” said Georgetown Interim President Robert Groves.
Dzau’s commencement address reminded graduates of the many dimensions of cura personalis, a philosophy at the core of a Georgetown education. For the new physicians, he said “care of the whole person” goes well beyond the bedside.
“Society grants physicians a unique level of trust and respect — but that trust is not unconditional. It rests on the understanding that we will use our expertise not only to heal illness, but to serve our patients as ‘a whole person’ and address their broader needs and the needs of the communities,” Dzau said.
Dzau spoke of the importance of recognizing the fullness of the human experience, “to understand not only what a patient needs medically, but who they are, what they carry, and what may be holding them back from healing.”
Dzau also acknowledged that personal and the political intersect every day, noting that physicians have the responsibility to use their voices to help translate knowledge into practical policy.
“Decisions made in federal buildings ripple into exam rooms and emergency departments,” he said. “You are entering your careers with clear insight into the dual nature of your work: caring for individual patients, yes — but also recognizing how policy, politics and systems shape the conditions of health long before someone walks into your clinic or hospital. Cura personalis.”
Dzau concluded the commencement address with a call to action.
“Class of 2025: The world is ready for your leadership,” he said. “It needs your compassion, your courage, and your brilliance. Keep asking big questions. Get involved. Find solutions beyond the examining room and clinics. Help make a better society. Carry the ethos of cura personalis with you — and help build the future of medicine we know is possible.”
Watch this year’s Commencement ceremony.
Scenes From Commencement Weekend
The following medical students were commissioned into the armed forces: (from l) Lt. John Railey, Navy; Lt. Alexander Kim, Navy; 1st Lt. Maria Leising, Air Force; Lt. Claire Holmvik, Navy; and Lt. Matthew Shiffer, Navy.
During the School of Medicine Commencement, six graduates received an MD/PhD, four earned an MD/MBA and one received an MD/MPH.
School of Medicine Executive Dean Norman J. Beauchamp Jr., MD, MHS, and Georgetown Interim President Robert Groves presented Victor J. Dzau, MD, the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa.
