Heading into the School of Medicine's convocation ceremony, (left to right) Aimalohi Ahonkhai, Brenda Shoo and Daniele Peters are all smiles.

On May 20, the School of Medicine tied a bow on the school year by conferring degrees on the 109th class to graduate since the School’s opening in 1893. Students from places as far-flung as Nepal and Chile mingled with classmates who grew up blocks from Baltimore’s Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, where the ceremony took place. All in all, the solemn scrolls added up to 115 degrees for doctor of medicine, 83 for doctor of philosophy and 12 for master of arts.

“We come from different places, have different values and world views,” Hari Nathan, medical student convocation speaker, told the packed auditorium. “But from now on, we’ll share a first name: Doctor.”

“Most people think Ph.D. students wake up late, hang out in the lab for a while, then go home to make a batch of beer.” Instead, said graduate student speaker Emily Overholser, they endure “pain and torture” tempered with the occasional “waking up at 3 a.m. with an epiphany.”

John Cameron, the Alfred Blalock University Distinguished Service Professor of Surgery and this year’s convocation speaker, imparted wisdom gleaned from 46 years at Hopkins.

But perhaps the evening’s most moving moment came when Dean Edward Miller read a message from an oncology patient who, in her darkest hour, experienced exceptional kindness from a cafeteria worker. The message of compassion lingered as the graduates received their hoods, recited the Hippocratic Oath and marched off into the future.

—Lindsay Roylance

Teaching Awards Theodore Bayless: JHU Alumni Association Excellence in Teaching Award David Weishampel, Tarik Tihan: W. Barry Wood Jr. Award Mark Dogoli (posthumously): House Staff Award King-Wai Yau: Graduate Student Teaching Award Donna Magid: George J. Stuart Award Jeremy Nathans, Roy C. Ziegelstein, Pedram Argani, Philip C. Buescher: Professors’ Award for Excellence in Teaching Anne R. Altemus: Ranice W. Crosby Distinguished Achievement Award Lawrence E. Shulman: Dean’s Special Recognition Award Student Awards Brian Garibaldi: Warfield T. Longcope Prize in Clinical Medicine Carmen Coombs, David Shook: Helen and Harold Harrison Award Hari Nathan: William Stewart Halsted Award in Surgery Victor Chen, David Nieglos: Sylvan Shane Prize in Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine Meghan Lynch: Emily Simms Haller Prize Andrew Muck: Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Award John Neely: American Academy of Neurology Prize for Excellence in Neurology Aimalohi Ahonkhai: David E. Rogers Award Tiffany Glass: Frank H. Netter, M.D. Memorial Scholarship in Medical Art