On October 2, the School of Public Health celebrated its Class of 2020 with a joyous Recognition Celebration, which for many students marked their first return to campus after in-person instruction was suspended in March 2020 due to COVID-19.

In his opening remarks, Dean Sandro Galea recognized that after the past 18 months, during which students have endured both disruption and loss, this celebration was indeed a moment deferred.

“Today’s celebration cannot undo the fact that it has been a difficult time. Your final year at SPH unfolded under extraordinary circumstances. These circumstances called on you to engage with a world-historical challenge,” he said. “Generations can pass without such a crisis emerging, and you faced one before even getting your degree. We are so proud of how you rose to the occasion, supporting health at the local, national, and global level.”

Student speaker Rafik Wahbi also acknowledged the hardships of the past year in an emotional, heartfelt speech in which he described why both rage and hope have become “two things that I regularly practice daily.”

Wahbi, currently a doctoral student at UCLA, said, “I study why we have decided to respond to almost every single social ill in our society with police, prisons, and violence. This is a regular practice that we have imbedded in every one of our institutions.”

Dean Galea also saluted award winners who were honored at the May 2020 online celebration: MPH recipient Mary Rose Dinnean; faculty members Candice M. Belanoff, Lauren Wise, and Madeleine Scammell; and staff member Jessica Christian.

The full list of award winners, whose exemplary work took place during the 2019–20 academic year, were recognized in a message to the SPH Community in May 2020.