{SUPER: Juan Herrejon, M.D./Class of 2018/Co-Class President}

I’m really grateful to be a part of this amazing institution that’s had 75 amazing years.

I really do feel connected to those that came before us. I can see their contributions daily with the facilities with the education, the quality of the education and so I’m really grateful for that.

My journey began in Mexico where I was born and I was able to experience a lot of my family unfortunately having a lot of chronic disease and that is what sparked my interest in medicine. I came to the U.S. with my family and I decided to pursue medicine being the first one to go to college. The first one to go to medical school and thank god, I’ve made it this far.

This has been a family effort all along from the very beginning and so I’m really, really excited to be sharing this moment with them.

{SUPER: Darlene King, M.D./Class of 2018}

I’m the first in my family to graduate college and now graduate medical school so it was really helpful to be able to have a good community to really surround me and support me. Help me get through this experience.

My experience leading up to this point has been very exciting and challenging. I started out as a mechanic engineer working at a company that had a lot of patient interaction and I saw that technology really had limitations. It couldn’t really comfort patients in the way that I wanted to and I wanted to go to medical school. Become a doctor.

UT Southwestern having 75 years being here, serving patients, serving the community. It just makes me feel I’m a part of legacy of doctors that I can then move forward and continue on.

{SUPER: Kate Squiers, M.D./Class of 2018}

My grandfather was a physician here for the majority of his career so I grew up coming here. Helping him shred old patient charts and meeting his patients and playing, he’s a cardiologist, so playing with his heart diagrams and then here in high school, I worked here in a physiology lab just a couple floors up so UT Southwestern has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.

To be a doctor is just to be with people in the biggest moments of their lives whether it’s the most tragic moment or the happiest moments and I mean what a privilege. I feel like to be privy to those moments and to be privy to humanity, I could say no to a career in medicine so…and I ultimately picked a career in pediatrics because I love working with families.

{SUPER: Jean-Claire “Mandi” Dillon, M.D./Class of 2018}

I feel blessed because oh my gosh, what an opportunity to graduate from medical.

I had a lot of mentors in my high school years who were MDs and it was always an idea in my head when I went to college, but I decided to go into chemical engineering and do something a little different. When I was there, I did internships and I really realized that I wanted to do something else besides engineering. I wanted to be in front of people. Talk with people, but mostly, I wanted to care for people and that’s how I decided to apply to medical school and thankfully UT Southwestern accepted me and that’s why I’m here (laughter).

{SUPER: Nate Kukowski, M.D./Class of 2018}

I definitely feel connected to the traditions and the people who’ve come before me here at UT Southwestern. I think it’s one of the best medical schools in the country and has served me and my friends and classmates so well and I think it’s exciting what the people who graduate here have achieved and will continue to achieve.