Welcome Message to New and Returning Students

By Office of The President | Sep 26, 2022

It has now been a couple of weeks since the start of the 2022-23 academic year, and I would like to take this opportunity to welcome our new students and those returning. I hope you spent the last few months with loved ones, traveling, working, or finding time to reflect and recharge. 

For those embarking on this first or next leg of their academic journey this year, I encourage you to keep your “why” in focus. At Downstate, you will learn how to work within a healthcare system with the flexibility and foresight to respond to ongoing, renewed, and emerging health challenges, and one which must be nimble enough to adjust as those challenges arise.

We recognize the dire circumstances faced during the uncertainty of the pandemic and remote learning, and now we remain cautious in light of the gradual return to in-person interactions. I look forward to campus activities that will allow for informal hallway conversations and “meetings” that stimulate imaginative solutions and peer support among each other, within and across programs.

Regardless of what led you to Downstate, you have chosen to pursue your role in healthcare, and we are here to support you. To help you settle in, I offer some words of counsel. First, be strategic about the responsibilities you undertake. Be a student. Be a team player. Find mentors. Give back to the community. Develop what you hope will become your niche. But most importantly, take time for yourself.

I anticipate that you are all here to take advantage of all Downstate has to offer, and I wish you all a productive year of study. For those graduating in May, I look forward to bestowing upon each of you the respective degrees once you have walked across the stage.

I wish you all great success this academic year.

Tags: Education, Presidents office