OKLAHOMA CITY — UCLA pitcher Holly Azevedo said her teammates created an “iced moment” by dumping water on her after Sunday's victory.

She was pretty cool during the game, too. She threw a two-hit shutout and the fifth-seeded Bruins beat No. 14 Florida 8-0 in six innings Sunday to reach the Women's College World Series semifinals and eliminate the Gators.

Azevedo (21-2) threw just 88 pitches, struck out two and walked one.

“I couldn’t do it without the people behind me," she said. "Our defense was really, really on point today, and obviously we had a really good outing with offense."

Kelli Godin, Maya Brady and Briana Perez each had two hits for the Bruins.

UCLA (50-9) will play No. 1 seed Oklahoma in the semifinals Monday and will have to beat the defending champion Sooners twice to reach the best-of-three championship series. The teams met in the championship series in 2019, with UCLA winning both games to claim the title. Oklahoma beat UCLA in an elimination game last year.

UCLA coach Kelly Inouye-Perez isn't worried about the fact that Oklahoma leads the nation in scoring, hitting and earned run average.

“We’ve got to be able to come out and play our game at the end of the day, and if we do that, then it will be a great day of softball,” she said. “That’s all that we’re focusing on right now.”

Florida (49-19) won its opener Thursday against Oregon State, but the Gators did not score in a loss to Oklahoma State on Saturday.

The struggles continued against UCLA.

“I think there was a lot of like, hits that we had that were hit hard, but it was right at people,” Florida's Cheyenne Lindsey said. “You can’t really control where the ball goes, only your contact. I think that was a big part of it.”

Elizabeth Hightower (17-9) got the loss for the Gators after giving up two runs on three hits in 3 1/3 innings. Florida was the only Southeastern Conference team in the World Series field.

UCLA opened the scoring in the bottom of the second when Godin singled to score Savannah Pola.

UCLA looked like it might add some runs in the third. With one on and two outs, Alyssa Garcia lifted one deep to left field. Florida's Katie Kistler leaped up against the wall and snagged it above the fence to end the inning.

The Bruins had runners on the corners with one out in the fourth when Florida shortstop Skylar Wallace — a second-team NFCA All-American — committed an error on a ground ball that allowed Pola to score.

Wallace failed to come up with another ground ball later in the inning. Briana Perez's contact was ruled a single, and two runs scored to make it 4-0.

A single by Brady in the sixth knocked in two runs and gave UCLA a 6-0 lead. Pola then singled and scored two more to end the game.

Inouye-Perez said the Bruins figured things out as the game progressed.

“Those Florida pitchers were throwing some nasty stuff, and the strike zone started to be a little different," she said. “You know, it was just a little different, so we had to make an adjustment. Super proud.”

How many times have you heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day? Now imagine, if you will, 30,000 servings of cereal. That’s the equivalent of what AdventHealth team members have collected in food and cash donations to help fill the void faced by families in many places during the summer months when some children don’t have access to free meals provided during the school year.

Experts say this void can have a big impact on children’s health.

Angela Fals has served as medical director for AdventHealth Children’s Pediatric Weight and Wellness Program since its inception 12 years ago. Fals, an AdventHealth Medical Group pediatrician, is also a Certified Culinary Medicine Specialist, who knows well the important role food plays in feeling whole.

She explained, “Your body has a desire and a need to have a certain amount of calories per day as fuel and energy. If it doesn’t receive that toward the beginning of the day, you better believe that, by the end of the day, it’s going to ask, and it’s going to ask in a really strong manner,” expressed as cravings and anxiety.

Enter AdventHealth team members.

At Texas Health Hospital Mansfield, a joint venture between Texas Health Resources and AdventHealth, Toke Mayes, director of nutritional and environmental services, organized a cereal drive to support the Mansfield Mission Center. The center, which expects to feed about 4,000 people during the summer, hosts a market that provides free necessities to anyone in need.

A friendly competition among team members resulted in 21,000 servings of cereal donated, a whopping 11,000 more than the original goal — and the largest cereal drive the mission center has seen.

“Cereal is one of the most requested items when children are out of school during the summer,” Lindsey Trook, the center’s director of development, said. “It is something kids can prepare themselves and contains several servings.”

For its 8th Annual Cereal Drive, the AdventHealth for Women & Children Magnet and Professional Growth Council invited Central Florida Division team members to “Doughnate for a Donut.” The council collected 297 pounds of cereal and US$1,013 — for a total of 8,542 servings — to benefit Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida.

In the West Florida region, Loughman Oaks Elementary School reached out to Julie Sing, volunteer services manager, about the need for food donations to the school’s summer program. Team members at AdventHealth Heart of Florida and AdventHealth Lake Wales responded in a big way, delivering more than 4,000 food items — including cereal as well as other staples such as peanut butter, tuna, fruit cups, and soups — to the school for sorting into backpacks full of food that students in the program were given to help feed them and their family.

The effort was particularly close to the heart of Ernestina Lopez, a hospital unit coordinator for the ICU at AdventHealth Heart of Florida. “I was one of these kids,” she said. “I received bags like this when I went to school there. Looking back on it now, those bags really helped my family out.” Lopez’s mother, Sonia Guereca, the EVS manager at the same hospital, loaned the team her truck to transport the items.

As for breakfast being the most important meal of the day, Fals said, “I would say yes, with the caveat that pretty much every meal is an important meal of the day. In terms of monitoring blood sugars and keeping them controlled and getting to a healthier weight with an effective and efficient metabolism, absolutely, breakfast is extremely important.”

Fals recommends layering cereals that may be higher in sugar content with a low-sugar, whole-grain choice. “When a child does not eat well,” she said, “whether it’s breakfast, lunch, or dinner, it’s going to affect their entire day. It’s going to affect their schoolwork. It’s going to affect their behavior. It’s going to potentially have a long-term effect.”

With the start of a new school year just around the corner, Fals stressed that “one of the main things parents can do is try to keep a schedule that is very similar to the school year.” That means not only normal mealtimes but also nine to ten hours of sleep and a decrease in sedentary activities.

The original version of this story was posted on the AdventHealth news site.

TCPalm’s exclusive investigation of Florida’s flagship program to limit nutrient pollution flowing into Lake Okeechobee is the first to show that every single rainfall runoff drainage basin around the lake with available data exceeds the state limit.

Reporting on the Basin Management Action Plans (BMAP) wasn’t simple. It required a lot of research, interviews, records requests and data analysis to uncover problems.

To understand the amount of pollution entering Lake O, reporters Sydney Czyzon, Max Chesnes and Lindsey Leake relied on water quality monitoring data tracked by the South Florida Water Management District. That data is in the SFWMD’s Environmental Reports for 2021 and 2022, in the chapters detailing water quality around Lake O.

Leake and Czyzon compared pollution amounts recorded by the SFWMD to pollution limits set by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

The reporters divided concentrations for each basin by the state limit to determine all of them had exceeded the limit, not only in 2020 and 2021, but on five-year averages from 2016 through 2021. “All” means all 32 of the 41 basins around Lake O that had available data in 2020 and 2021. “Year” means a “water year,” measured from May 1-April 30.

Czyzon used contrasting data from DEP and SFWMD reports to show discrepancies. While DEP reports farmers were reducing pollution, SFWMD reports they exceeded limits. Czyzon referenced Figure 6 of DEP’s 2020 Statewide Annual Report showing Lake O exceeding its pollution reduction target to pollution loading data shared in chapters 8B of the 2021 and 2022 SFWMD reports.

Reporters also reviewed hundreds of pages of environmental reports to understand the BMAP program. This includes the Lake O chapters of the 2021 and 2022 editions of the SFWMD Environmental Report, the 2020 DEP Statewide Annual Report and the Lake Okeechobee Basin Management Action Plan.

To geographically evaluate basin and watershed locations, reporters used an online mapping application available on the SFWMD website. Reporters used the application’s layering feature to see parcels within each basin.

The state’s pollution-tracking method makes it impossible to pinpoint which among multiple parcel owners in a basin may contribute most to water contamination. However, mapping allowed TCPalm to determine that Rio Rancho Corp. was the sole parcel owner in basin S-154C.

Czyzon recreated the map for readers by using watershed boundaries that most closely matched the Lake O pollution data from the 2021 and 2022 SFWMD reports, shown in Tables 8B-6. Czyzon downloaded an existing mapping file from the SFWMD website for watersheds around Lake O, then imported that file into Google My Maps.

Czyzon was unable to exactly match the boundaries of some watersheds because SFWMD officials said they could not locate correlating mapping files to Tables 8B-6 in the reports. Due to this, watersheds not shown on TCPalm’s map include the L-61E Basin, East Beach Drainage District (Culvert 12), East Shore Drainage District and the lower and upper Kissimmee subwatersheds.

Czyzon and Chesnes used Florida’s open records law to request documents from DEP and the Department of Agricultural Services (DACS), including DEP records detailing noncompliant landowners referred to DACS for enforcement and templates of the warning letters mailed to them. The reporters also were the first to request and receive nutrient records from DACS on the amount of phosphorus being applied to the land around Lake O, nearly 2 million pounds.

DEP denied one request for the agenda and minutes of an Aug. 5, 2021, meeting between DEP and DACS to discuss nitrogen and phosphorous applications. DEP spokesperson Alexandra Kuchta said there was no agenda or meeting minutes.

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office emailed a prepared statement via spokesperson Jared Williams. DEP and DACS answered questions via email through spokespersons Kuchta and Erin Moffet, respectively. On-the-record interviews were conducted with:

Rio Rancho Corp. owner Juan Gaitan declined an interview during a brief phone conversation Sept. 15. Czyzon called his verified phone number five times over two months and left voicemails. Czyzon, Chesnes and photojournalist Patrick Dove went to his company’s registered address, 12390 Highway 70 West in Okeechobee, on Oct. 21, but workers said Gaitan was not there and the property was not Rio Rancho.

Czyzon and Chesnes conducted multiple interviews that were on background or off the record, meaning the information could not be included or attributed in the story.

Lindsey Leake is TCPalm's health, welfare and social justice reporter. Contact her at lindsey.leake@tcpalm.com, 772-529-5378, @NewsyLindsey on Twitter or @LindseyMLeake on Facebook.

BARTOW — In a nearly unanimous decision, Polk County commissioners rejected plans to rezone portions of the Imperial Lakes Golf Course for higher densities.

On Tuesday, commissioners considered two proposals from applicant Sarah Case with Next Level Planning and Permitting.

The first was to amend the future land use designation from residential low to residential high for 41.24 acres of the Mulberry golf course. The second was for a future land use change from residential low and development of regional impact to residential medium on an additional 21 acres.

Both proposals were approved in May by the Planning Commission on a 6-0 vote, with one member abstaining.

Commissioners rejected the first proposal on a 4-1 vote, with Commissioner George Lindsey voting to approve the project. Commissioners unanimously rejected the second proposal; Lindsey had to abstain because he has a business relationship with a developer tied to a portion of the site neighboring the 21-acre parcel.

Case said the team representing the developer has not yet decided how to move forward after the denials.

"We have some decisions to make," Case told The Ledger in a phone call after the hearing. "I feel like we made a very compelling argument about compatibility because multifamily ... adjacent to multifamily is the epitome, the definition of compatible."

Case had originally submitted two planned unit development proposals to the county that showed plans for 888 apartments across 76.14 acres on the northern portion of the golf course and 150 single-family homes on 115 acres. Case said she's now pulled both proposals.

'How to fix' problems like flooding

The golf course, which encompasses 188 acres, was rezoned to residential low last year. While multifamily isn't allowed under that zoning, there are processes by which a developer could boost the maximum density from one unit per acre to five. Not including 16 acres of wetlands, a developer could reach 876 homes on the full 188 acres.

During her presentation to commissioners, Comprehensive Planning Administrator Chanda Bennett showed that had commissioners approved the requested land use changes, a developer could have gotten 722 multifamily units on the 61.24 acres in question with a binding site plan approved by the Planning Commission after a public hearing. If a developer chose to just go through a staff review and bypass a public hearing, that number would have dropped to 488 units.

Commissioner Neil Combee introduced both motions to reject the rezoning proposals. He said that last year, commissioners were told by staff that they had an "obligation" to assign a land use to the golf course because its DRI had expired. But he didn't see how the proposal in front of him benefitted residents or existing traffic and drainage issues.

Combee said that he heard during the public hearing from Case that "putting hundreds of units on this rather small parcel will improve drainage for the area."

"I have a hard time accepting that," Combee said. "My opinion is that we should probably come up with an idea about how to fix that before we figure out how to maximize development on this piece of property."

Commissioner Bill Braswell agreed.

"To Sarah's point about not making the drainage issue any worse, if it just stayed the same, it's terrible right now," Braswell said. "I lived out there 30 years ago; it has not gotten any better in the 30 years since I lived there. So this kind of density on this particular piece of property is not compatible with the best interests of the citizens of Polk County."

The commissioners’ comments echoed concerns raised by neighbors who spoke against the proposal. In addition to issues with compatibility, residents said a neighborhood of the proposed density would exacerbate existing issues with traffic, safety and drainage, which can lead to portions of Imperial Lakes flooding.

'This project is significant':Proposal to redevelop Wedgewood Golf Course sees opposition

'There's a lot of NIMBYs'

Most of the residents who spoke live in condos surrounding the development. Bennett's presentation showed that the land in question is surrounded by five residential developments, with densities ranging from 5.85 units per acre to 22.9 units per acre. The most dense neighborhood, Fairwoods, contains 203 units.

The residential high portion of the development would have been sandwiched in between densities of 10 units per acre and 22 units per acre; residential high permits up to 15 units per acre. Both Case and Lindsey stated they thought 15 units per acre would be a good transitional density between those two neighborhoods.

"I do think it’s interesting that the higher density multifamily developments were so adamantly opposed to what we were proposing on a portion of the site," Case said. "There's a lot of NIMBYs — not in my backyard — but you know, they moved there, they wanted a condo, they don't want anyone else to have a condo next to them."

But residents cited issues with the structure of the proposed development. They said while their homes are all two stories, the plans the developer submitted called for 14 four-story apartment buildings.

Sue Bizerra said that plan is "ludicrous."

"The entire Imperial Lakes residential area is majority one-story homes. There are some two-story homes and condos. But there's nothing beyond that," Bizerra said. "There's no compatibility whatsoever with the existing neighborhood area."

Residents said the buildings would block their current views and called for recreational land to be carved out of the development and maintained, imitating the golf course.

"The golf course is no longer. That ship sailed last year when we assigned it RL land use," Case said. "There’s been no involvement on the residents’ part to try to support the golf course, so the golf course failed."

According to the land use-change applications, the 41-acre parcel is owned by ImperiaLakes Land Corp. and the 21-acre parcel is owned by ImperiaLakes Land Corp, Kenneth Warren and Harold Baxter.

ImperiaLakes Land Corp. is registered to John Lennon, who did not respond to a request for comment on the future of the golf course.

After the first proposal was rejected, Lindsey asked his fellow commissioners if they would consider rezoning 41 acres to residential medium. Braswell said no.

"As a board, we routinely deal with these issues that were bad decisions made by previous boards year after year after year," Braswell said. "Approving this today would just be another bad decision some board would have to deal with five years from now, 10 yeas from now."

Maya Lora can be reached with tips or questions at mlora@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @mayaklora.

The Southwest Florida Water Management District (District) is seeking public input to determine the priority of minimum flows and levels (MFLs) for lakes, wetlands, rivers, streams, and aquifers in the District. Legislation requires the District to review and, if necessary, revise this schedule each year.

The District will hold a public meeting on Aug. 25 at 5:30 p.m. at the Tampa Service Office, located at 7601 U.S. Highway 301 North.

Members of the public can also join the meeting virtually via Microsoft Teams. To join the meeting via Teams, please click here. You can also use this URL to join the meeting: https://bit.ly/3zJqfjn. Use of the Chrome browser is recommended for best compatibility with Teams.

To join the meeting by telephone only, dial 1-786-749-6127 and when prompted enter the conference ID: 909-560-596#.

Public Workshop on Minimum Flows and Levels for Lakes, Wetlands, Rivers, Streams and Aquifers to be held August 25

A minimum flow or level is the limit at which further water withdrawals will cause significant harm to the water resources or environment. The District’s Governing Board sets these limits as part of achieving the balance between meeting water needs and sustaining Florida’s natural systems.

The adopted minimum flows and levels priority list and schedule for 2020 is available on the District’s website here. The draft 2021 list will be published on the site following the Governing Board’s August meeting. The revised schedule will be considered for approval at the Board’s October meeting.

Written comments on the draft priority list and schedule may be submitted to Doug Leeper, MFLs Program Lead, at doug.leeper@watermatters.org or to 2379 Broad Street, Brooksville, FL, 34604 no later than Sept. 7.

For more information, please contact Doug Leeper at 1-800-423-1476, ext. 4272.

Deltona's Lindsay Ingram was named the Florida Dairy Farmers 2022 Softball Coach of the Year across all classifications Wednesday following one final round of voting from a statewide panel.

Ingram, in her 18th season in charge of the Wolves, guided the program to the first FHSAA softball championship in Volusia County history. Deltona defeated Lake Wales 6-3 in Clermont on May 28 to capture the trophy.

More:Meet the 2022 Volusia-Flagler-St. Johns All-Area Softball Team

"I'm extremely honored to be chosen and to be up against the coaches in the (vote)," Ingram said in a phone interview. "Everyone deserves to be there. I'm emotional about it, to be honest.

"I'm still riding that wave of enjoying it. You put your heart and soul into coaching — for each kid. … (The honors) are surreal. I'm super happy and grateful."

The first tri-county area Softball Coach of the Year recipient, Ingram surpassed the 300-win mark for her career this season as the Wolves went 20-3. She received six of the 19 first-place votes and seven second-place votes to edge Lakewood Ranch's TJ Goelz by 15 points.

Junior left-handed pitcher Katie McCaw, the Class 4A Player of the Year, placed seventh in Miss Softball voting. She received one second-place vote and one third-place vote.

Ingram described McCaw was the "missing puzzle piece" on Deltona's squad, getting familiar with the California transfer by watching highlight videos once she enrolled. She posted a 19-3 record with a 1.27 ERA across 132? innings, striking out 191 batters and issuing just 38 walks.

"She really brought the leadership and presence," Ingram said. "In the classroom, on the field, in the hallways, she pumps up her teammates all the time."

Former Spruce Creek star Kelsi Dunne remains the only local player to earn Miss Softball honors, doing so twice in 2006 and '07.

Ingram has no plans to slow down despite reaching the pinnacle. Deltona's four All-Area Honorees are all set to return next spring, and the Wolves are optimistic about going back-to-back.

"I really think this team's got it," Ingram said. "Let's see what happens. I make our schedule tougher each year, and I'm excited for the future."

TCPALM/Treasure Coast Newspapers

Imagine living in a world where good intentions and wishful thinking are more important than reality. That pretty much describes where state regulators are in their efforts to curb pollution seeping into Lake Okeechobee.

The State of Florida has divided the properties along the lake into 32 drainage basins. A recent investigation by TCPalm found pollution in every one of those basins exceeded the limits deemed acceptable by the state between May 2016 and April 2021.

Most of the time, it's not even close. The investigation found pollution levels were 5.7 times above the acceptable limits on the median for those drainage basins.

But you wouldn't know this if you were relying on the state Department of Environmental Protection's data. The state uses modeling estimates that credit pollution-reduction initiatives, regardless of their effectiveness, in determining whether so-called Basin Management Action Plans are working.

Relying on the modeling estimates rather than actual data is like turning up the car radio's volume to drown out the sound of an annoying rattle symptomatic of mechanical trouble.

A failing system:‘Look at the water for evidence.’ Data proves Florida pollution prevention not working

A longstanding problem:For years, TCPalm has sounded alarm about BMAPs not working. Read our past investigations

A catalyst for change:Blue-Green Algae Task Force addresses agriculture, septic systems, public health issues

It's not entirely surprising, though. The state has been lax in other areas of environmental regulation, such as monitoring the amount of lead in the St. Sebastian River.

In TCPalm's investigation, reporters Sydney Czyzon, Max Chesnes, and Lindsey Leake evaluated readings from water-quality monitors used by the South Florida Water Management District. Those readings tell a much different story about the amount of pollutants like phosphorus, primarily from cow manure, seeping into the lake from nearby farms.

Water from the lake is regularly discharged into the St. Lucie River and eventually the Indian River Lagoon, so this pollution should be of great concern to people all around eastern Florida.

The state must take several steps to address this problem.

The first and most obvious is to communicate to property owners along the lake the "best management practices" are mandatory, not optional. Based on comments some property owners made to our reporters, there seems to be some confusion on this point.

The state also must overhaul its efforts to inspect and enforce compliance with those rules. Currently, the Department of Agriculture inspects properties, then refers suspected noncompliance to the DEP.

The DEP could fine polluters up to $50,000, which should be enough to get property owners' attention, but it never has.

It's an inefficient system to have one government agency do inspections, then hand cases off to another agency for enforcement. One department should handle both.

Whichever agency is responsible should treat enforcement as a critical part of its mission and not an afterthought. If there aren't enough inspectors to handle potential cases, the state should allocate more funding to handle that duty.

Of course the state's enforcement efforts should be based on data provided by the water-quality monitors and not just modeling that doesn't accurately reflect what's happening in the lake.

In fact, the state should increase water-monitoring efforts to more accurately identify sources of pollution. There are dozens of properties within each drainage basin, so the state should add monitors to pinpoint which property owners are out of compliance with the standards.

If the state does all of that and water pollution still exceeds acceptable limits, then it might be necessary to consider more stringent standards.

It doesn't seem like we're at that point yet, however. The standards in place might work if they were actually being followed. We won't know that for sure until the state develops a more rigorous inspection and enforcement routine.

Along the Treasure Coast, water quality seems like a nonpartisan issue. Elected officials from both major parties seem to understand how important clean water is to our local economy and way of life.

Understanding is meaningless, though, unless it leads to action. The time for action is now.

Editorials published by TCPalm/Treasure Coast Newspapers are decided collectively by its editorial board. To respond to this editorial with a letter to the editor, email up to 300 words to TCNLetters@TCPalm.com.

They’d trained during a global pandemic and led clinics that helped the community’s most needy – farmworkers, the homeless and uninsured. And as they gathered one last time May 6 before commencement, the Class of 2022 – the medical school’s 10^th graduating class – gave a gift they hope will remind others the importance of perseverance and compassion.

Class President Michael Fiorino, who will do his residency training in neurological surgery at St. Louis University School of Medicine, announced at Class Day that seniors had purchased 10 white coats for the Class of 2026, who matriculate in July. He says each coat pocket will hold a note of inspiration from the Class of 2022.

“We hope the white coats will help further the message of showing grace in the face of challenges, a spirit of gratitude in the face of sacrifice, and the importance of supporting each other as a class,” he says.

This year’s M.D. graduation is May 20 at Addition Financial Arena. Class Day is designed to give seniors one last celebration with each other before they get their degrees and head into three to seven years of residency training depending on their specialty. This year’s graduates will train at top hospitals across the state and nation – including Georgetown, Harvard, John Hopkins, Orlando Health and Stanford. A record 16 graduates are going to residency training at UCF-HCA Healthcare programs across the state.

Before Class Day festivities began on the College of Medicine’s Tavistock Green, founding medical school Dean Dr. Deborah German met with the seniors to talk about her own lessons from residency. As she welcomed them to the Class Day luncheon moments later, she talked about building a medical school from scratch – before there was even an exit off State Road 417 in Lake Nona’s Medical City. “I have dreamed of this class for a very long time,” she says. “Remember, this is your medical school. You will always be a UCF Knight.”

Class Day also includes awards for outstanding seniors. Many of the winners say they were drawn to UCF’s young medical school because of its culture – the idea that faculty and staff supported students and urged them to follow their dreams, the fact that UCF’s culture wasn’t cut-throat but instead taught collaboration, partnership and putting the needs of others before the needs of self. Several say a new, innovative medical school helping to create an emerging Medical City gave them unprecedented opportunities for leadership, scholarship and research.

“The culture at UCF was unmatched,” says Katie Ballantyne, who received multiple academic awards and will go to Boston’s Children’s Hospital for pediatric training after commencement. “I was able to flourish because of the support and connection I had here.”

Spencer Lessans received the award for outstanding senior in internal and family medicine. He’s going to Vanderbilt for an internal medicine residency and hopes to return to the College of Medicine as a physician faculty member one day. He’s a double Knight. He earned a degree in biomedical sciences from UCF and was part of the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences’ Medical Scholars Program. He’s going into internal medicine because he says he wants to be part of patients’ lives, to focus on the whole person, not just their disease. “I came to this College of Medicine because I wanted to stay part of the UCF family,” he says.

Class Day awardees included one faculty member. Dr. Marcy Verduin, associate dean of students and professor of psychiatry, who was selected by students for the Hippocratic Oath Award. It’s given to the faculty member who best embodies the ideals of Hippocrates in compassionate patient care, the highest ethical standards, and dedication to teaching excellence. That honoree leads students in reciting the Hippocratic Oath at commencement.

Dr. Verduin told students she had been spending time this spring reflecting on their four-year journey together. “I’ve watched you gracefully navigate unbelievable challenges throughout the COVID pandemic,” she says. “I couldn’t be prouder of the work you have done to leave a legacy as the Class of 2022. This is the moment that we have all been working towards – your graduation represents your transformation from novice learners into young physicians who we eagerly welcome as our colleagues.”

Class Day 2022 Award Recipients (for photos, visit this link)