“Lead, inspire, serve and dream big”

Jul 21, 2011 | Updated May 6, 2015

“Relentlessly pursue knowledge, seek wisdom, give service and demand excellence throughout your lifetime,” President Franklin charged the Class of 2011.

The event must feel like a mighty bright light at the end of the tunnel or a scenic summit after a formidable mountain climb: As they well deserved, members of the DMU Class of 2011 embraced the joys of commencement.

“You have to enjoy the process,” relaxed podiatric medicine graduate Eric Lew reflected during the campus picnic on May 27. “It’s arduous but fun. Enjoy the education, the professors and your patients.”

Lew was among the recipients of nearly 500 DMU degrees in May. They included the students who started DMU’s Homeless Camp Outreach and who worked with administrators to bolster the University’s pharmaceutical conflict of interest policy. They included grads like Amanda Eilers, who earned her D.O. and master of science in anatomy degrees while participating in DMU’s highly selective “Pathways of Distinction” research program, serving as a teaching assistant for multiple courses and being active on campus and in the community. No wonder she landed the lone cardiothoracic surgery residency at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

“I’m extremely grateful for this opportunity and will be forever indebted to the people who have helped me achieve my goals,” she said. They include her father, whose advice she included in her residency application: “If you aren’t going to do it right, don’t do it at all.”

Keynote speaker Jim Leach, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, encouraged graduates to “apply the methods common in the medical disciplines” in helping the nation tackle problems ranging from high federal debt and joblessness to “embarrassingly petty politics.”