On September 5th, 2018, we celebrated our 43rd Graduation Ceremony.
The 2017/2018 graduating class consisted of 22 graduates from 22 different countries. Most of them attended the ceremony in their national costumes, as graduates traditionally do in the International MPH Graduation Ceremonies. With this graduating class, we now have 888 alumni countries from more than 100 different countries.
The ceremony opened with greetings from Prof. Oron Shagrir, Vice President for Internationalization, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Prof. David Lichtstein, Dean, Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Prof. Yoram Weiss, Director, Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital; H.E. Ambassador Gil Haskel, Head of MASHAV, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Following the greeting and the graduates’ song: “You and I will change the World,” we had the privilege of hearing our keynote speaker, Dr. Norbert Rakiro (Kenya, IMPH 2005), Senior Public Health Consultant and Christian minister, who is also a passionate advocate for healthy lives and strong resilient health systems, engaged with governments, civil society and donors in Africa. He gave beautiful advice to the graduating class as they are returning to their home countries and starting a new phase in their careers, with a useful toolbox at their disposal.
Prof. Ronit Kark, daughter of Prof. Jeremy Kark z”l, has presented the Jeremy D. Kark Legacy Prize for Academic Excellence to Dr. Luz Angela Torres Lopez of Colombia, who also represented the 2018 International MPH graduating class in thanking the IMPH faculty and administrative staff, as well as our generous donors for their support.
Prof. Ora Paltiel, Director, Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine, gave her closing remarks which concluded the meaningful event. A reception was held after the ceremony in honor of our graduates.
