It is with great honor that I introduce the Harvard School
of Dental Medicine class of 2022 president
and speaker, Praveen Kumar Guntaka.
[APPLAUSE AND CHEERING]
Kumar grew up in a small village in Southern India,
before emigrating to the United States in 2008,
calling Texas, and eventually Maine his new home.
Kumar graduated from the University of Massachusetts
Amherst in 2018, where he received
his Bachelor in Science and Biochemistry
and Molecular Biology and Psychology,
before matriculating to the Harvard
School of Dental Medicine.
During his time at Harvard, Kumar served as class president
and discovered his interdisciplinary passion
for global surgery and artificial intelligence.
He conducted research in deep learning methods
to assess tumor segmentation and oropharyngeal cancer
and published the first scoping review
highlighting the landscape of global oral and maxillofacial
surgery academic collaborations.
When Kumar wasn't busy with research
or in the dental clinic, you could
find him jogging through the streets of Boston, road
tripping with classmates, or grabbing a beer at Trillium.
Kumar will soon call New York City home,
as he begins his training in oral and maxillofacial surgery
at Mount Sinai.
He's joined here today by his parents, grandma, brother,
sister-in-law, nephew, and Angela, to whom he
attributes all of his success.
His remarks are titled, "Embracing Uncertainty."
Please join me in welcoming my classmate, future colleague,
and personal friend, Praveen Kumar Guntaka.
[APPLAUSE AND CHEERING]
Hey, everyone.
Thank you, Jack, for the kind introduction.
Friends, family, and faculty, I'm
incredibly honored and grateful to welcome you
all back in person and celebrate this momentous day with all
of us.
And to my fellow graduates of a class of 2022,
this is not a dream.
We did it.
[APPLAUSE AND CHEERING]
It's hard to imagine that only a few years ago, we
were sitting in these exact seats
as strangers, naive to all things medicine and dentistry.
Fast forward to this moment, we're
now gathered here as family, several years wiser,
but still naive to all things medicine and dentistry--
[LAUGHTER]
--or maybe most things.
For some of you, your journey to Harvard
began like mine, rooted outside of the United States.
Growing up, my role was only as big as the dirt-paved village
in India that I ran around in.
But many-- none of us could have--
sorry for that.
[LAUGHTER]
Yeah, sorry.
The closest doctor was more than a two-hour bus ride from home.
And dentistry wasn't a concept I was even aware of.
From a young age, I learned that the only constant in life
was often unpredictable change.
At 10 years old, I left behind the only world
I knew to immigrate to America.
Home became Dallas, then Austin, and then eventually Portland,
Maine.
And while my family strove to embrace each change,
we were flooded with challenges and remaimed
buried in the lower class.
My parents worked 80-hour weeks scrubbing restaurant floors,
bussing tables, cleaning bathrooms
to provide my brother me with a better life.
For my parents, selfless service became their way
of coping with uncertainty.
I owe everything to their sacrifices,
as I stand here today ready to embrace the challenges
and uncertainty of tomorrow.
It wasn't until my freshman year of college
that I set foot in a dentist office.
So now be able to dedicate my life to a profession I grew up
only knowing to be a luxury.
That is the beauty of unpredictable change.
But today is about more than my individual story.
Today's a celebration of all of our unique upbringings,
sacrifices, and motivations.
It is a tribute to all of our loved ones,
without whom these DMDs would have been but an unfulfilled
dream, sort of like that unfulfilled dream of being
able to confidently palpate a JVP or actually hear a murmur.
[LAUGHTER]
From day one of our first year, this class
has tackled everything together, conquering anatomy, physiology,
the practice of medicine, all while numbing ourselves
to the smell of formaldehyde and masking
our panics as we assisted fourth-year dental students.
But many of the most significant and memorable milestones
along our journey of self-discovery and personal
growth occurred outside of the classroom,
from celebrating birthdays, engagements, and spontaneously
road tripping to run away from our problems.
The unbreakable bonds we formed made
us stronger than any sealants we've ever placed--
[LAUGHTER]
--reminding us that amid every uncertain transition,
we would always have one another to commiserate with, celebrate
with, and lean on.
And never would we need each other more
than our second year.
In what felt like a blink of an eye,
coronavirus became more than just a [INAUDIBLE]
in our sketchy microdeck.
Coronavirus turned the world as we knew it upside down,
forcing us to confront unpredictable change
and uncertainty.
None of us could have prepared for having
to trade in our [INAUDIBLE] for a one-way ticket home,
with many of us taking the remainder of our classes
from our childhood bedrooms.
When we started at HSDM, many of us
imagined that the greatest challenge
we would face in dental school would
be pouring perfectly fitted casts,
doing our first root canals, or passing our licensure exams.
But the truth is, nothing was more nerve racking
than figuring out how to unmute ourselves and share
our screens on Zoom.
[LAUGHTER]
At first, Zoom School of Dental Medicine felt like a dream.
Taking classes from the comfort of our beds
was a much-welcome break from the intensity of life before.
But eventually, the monotony kicked in.
I mean, just as Joey, who didn't leave his apartments
for the first six months of pandemic
except to try the new Popeye's chicken sandwich.
[LAUGHTER]
I'm sure it was delicious.
But no sandwich could satisfy our collective hunger
to be back with one another in person.
[APPLAUSE]
[LAUGHTER]
And while our nation tuned into the Fauci and Trump
debates over public health protocols,
our class were tuning in to the showdown
between the dental school and the university admin,
as we anxiously awaited updates on our return to campus.
Yet, being away from campus never
stopped us from fighting tooth and nail
for the things that drove us to medicine and dentistry.
From social justice activism during the Black Lives Matter
movement, to tackling health inequities
during the global pandemic, our actions
would shape these pivotal years.
We came together through education, introspection,
difficult conversations, and most importantly,
through collective action.
Uncertainty was our catalyst, driving
us to abandon the desire to return to normalcy
and instead work towards bettering the world we live in.
Personally, I had the privilege of witnessing and participating
firsthand the development of new student organizations,
research groups, and initiatives that provide food, health care
supplies, vaccines, and educational resources
to communities, locally and abroad.
In our dental class alone, Emily co-founded My Dental Key,
a dental educational platform with over 3,000 users.
Jack pumped out over 25 publications,
including topics such as the use of telemedicine
in oral and maxillofacial surgery
and evaluating the impact of racial segregation
on survival in patients with head and neck cancer.
Mark bridged the worlds of dentistry and business
by founding an entrepreneurship club
and hosting over 40 renowned speakers from across the globe.
Elizabeth restarted the Action Program
to Advance Care for Underprivileged Youth
amid the pandemic.
And myself, alongside five fellow classmates,
founded a global surgery research group
that provided first and secondary dental students
with more research opportunities.
Needless to say, these last four years have been life changing.
And coming face to face with heartbreaking grief and loss,
we grew stronger through our faith in science and belief
in the power of human connection.
We each brought the strength into the clinic
amid a global pandemic, where every patient highlighted
the critical importance of oral health as a window
to overall well-being.
Navigating through these unprecedented times,
we summoned the courage and passion from within
to not just face uncertainty, but embrace uncertainty.
As our zealous class goes on to master residencies
in various specialties across the country,
let us continue to inform and amplify our voices
as dedicated advocates and educators,
remembering to always treat the patient, not just the disease.
While much of the future remains uncertain,
one thing is for sure.
HDMS class of 2022, we started from the bottom
in the dental school basement.
[LAUGHTER]
Now we are here.
And nothing can stop us.
We're all the way up.
Congratulations and thank you, everyone.
[APPLAUSE AND CHEERING]