The University of California, Riverside School of Medicine celebrated the graduation of 74 students in the class of 2025 at its annual Commencement and Hippocratic Oath Ceremony on Friday, June 6, 2025 at the UCR Student Recreation Center.
Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences and Mark and Pam Rubin Dean Deborah Deas, MD, MPH, opened the ceremony with a tribute to the class's resilience, acknowledging the unique journey of the class that began medical school during the COVID-19 pandemic. “You have pushed yourselves to your limits, advocated for your patients, and grown as individuals and future physicians,” she said.
Seventy-six percent of the graduates will remain in Southern California for residency training, with 37% staying in the Inland Empire. Sixty-six percent are entering primary care and high-need specialties such as family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry, and general surgery.
“This is a remarkable outcome,” said Deas. “Collectively, as a class, you’ve shown your commitment to our medical school’s mission and have evoked a spirit of service, integrity and excellence that is second to none.”
The keynote speaker was Xavier Becerra (pictured above), the 25th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, who brought decades of experience in public service and health policy. “I like to say, ‘If you want to know where a leader will take you, know where they’ve come from,’” he told the graduates. “You are the future of medicine and of public health–the health of our families, our nation, our economy, of the world, literally rests on your shoulders. No pressure.”
Student speaker Xaida Wright, who served as a class representative during medical school, delivered a moving address that reflected on the class’s journey, paying tribute to those who supported them along their path.
“To the loved ones that we lost along the way, who were often the catalyst for why many of us committed to medicine, we thank you, and we miss you, and we will continue to make you proud,” said Wright, who grew up in nearby Rancho Cucamonga.
Wright encouraged her classmates to remain grounded in their purpose. “If we keep our ‘why medicine’ as our center point, it will allow us to make the best decisions both for ourselves and for our patients,” she said.
Many graduates’ “why” involved giving back to the Inland Empire community, reflecting the school’s mission to improve access to healthcare in the surrounding area.
Graduating student Vivek Bhatt, who grew up in Fontana, said people in the local area undergo some of the same struggles his family experienced. He matched at nearby Loma Linda University for diagnostic radiology and said he looks forward to giving back to the community that helped raise him. “I'm doing radiology, which is not super patient-facing, but I think the fact that they can really make a difference in people's lives is really cool,” he said.
Danae Bowen will also be returning to the Inland Empire as a recipient of the IEHP Dean’s Mission Award, which involves a commitment to practice in Inland Southern California. "I feel like what drew me to UCR…was the mission about bringing more physicians to areas of need,” said Bowen, who will be completing her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at UC Davis. “I just felt like I want to put myself in a position where I can help where it's needed, where people really have a shortage of doctors,” she said.
The ceremony included the hooding of each graduate, the conferral of degrees by Chancellor Kim A. Wilcox, and the recitation of the Hippocratic Oath led by Pablo Joo, MD, senior associate dean for Medical Education.
