May 2025 was a milestone month for VCOM as graduation ceremonies took place across all four campuses. Graduation speakers shared insights and advice ranging from Dr. Seuss to Plato.
Graduating from medical school is a significant achievement—one that requires immense dedication, perseverance, and no small financial investment. But for these new physicians, medicine is more than a career—it’s a calling, whether they’re planning to practice family medicine in their hometowns or pursue a specialty in a larger hospital setting.
VCOM Provost Debbie West highlighted the College’s impressive history, noting that VCOM has graduated more than 6,300 physicians since its first graduating class in 2007. Altogether, VCOM alumni—including the Class of 2025—will provide nearly 1 billion patient care visits over their practice lifetimes. In her remarks, Provost West told the graduates, “Your academic achievement isn’t the only reason we chose you to be a VCOM student. We chose you for your compassion, cultural competence, humility, persistence, and ethical responsibility to yourself and others. Those qualities have served you well over the past four years and will continue to do so throughout your career.”
Indeed, those same qualities are the hallmarks of a VCOM education and they are an important part of the College’s mission, which these new physicians will now take with them as they start their careers, amplifying the impact of VCOM across the country.
At VCOM-Carolinas, graduation speaker Leith States, acting assistant secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, used The Lorax by Dr. Seuss to emphasize the importance of caring enough to make a difference.
We are at a time of disruption and change in our profession. New ideas and innovative approaches to care delivery and public health are needed, and a new generation of stewards must make them a reality. No pressure to you all, but we’re looking to you to take the torch and do great things.
At the Auburn campus, which had the largest number of family cloakers in campus history, graduation speaker David Thrasher—VCOM-Auburn board member and associate professor at the UAB School of Medicine—spoke of the responsibility of being a physician. Quoting his own medical school mentor, Dr. Thrasher said, “There is no greater opportunity, obligation, or responsibility that can fall on any human being than to become a physician.”
At the Louisiana campus, speaker Roderick Clark, MD, a distinguished nephrologist and medical leader, reminded graduates that physicians are uniquely qualified to lead not only in practice, but also in their communities and in government. “As you go out into your career, you’ll be called to do good things, and I recommend that you take the time to do them,” he said. “You’ve been given a gift, but it’s a gift to share—and if I may quote Plato, ‘Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.’”
The VCOM Class of 2025 achieved an impressive combined final match rate of 99.6% across all campuses, with 635 graduates. Their initial match rate of 97% exceeds the national average for all U.S. DO seniors (92.6%) and U.S. MD seniors (93.5%). Read more about VCOM’s Class of 2025 matches on our website.
