05.13.23

Durbin Delivers Commencement At Loyola Chicago Stritch School Of Medicine

CHICAGO – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, delivered the commencement address to Loyola Chicago Stritch School of Medicine’s Class of 2023 during a ceremony Saturday at the Gentile Arena in Chicago. Durbin reflected on the resilience and hard work of this year’s graduates and commended Loyola’s commitment to preparing the next generation of doctors and researchers.

“Just take the Blue Line from the Loop to the ‘L’ stop in East Garfield Park,” said Durbin. “Between those two Chicago neighborhoods – just five miles apart – life expectancy plummets 16 years. Or go to a small rural town in Southern Illinois – or any state, really – where the hospital has just closed, the town’s only doctor is about to retire, and the nearest emergency room is now 25 miles away. Our City, our State, and our nation need the unique skills you have in the healing arts.”

Durbin commended Stritch School of Medicine for their commitment to educating Dreamers. In 2012, Loyola became the first medical school in the nation to adjust its admission policy to welcome applicants who qualify for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Today, six Dreamers received their M.D.s, bringing the total number of DACA recipients who have graduated from this outstanding medical school to 38. 

“In 2012, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine made a brave commitment. You became the first medical school in America to openly admit DACA students,” Durbin said. “Among these six new Dreamer doctors is Cesar Montelongo Hernandez. To our knowledge, Cesar is the first DACA recipient in the nation – in the nation – to earn an M.D./Ph.D. Congratulations, Cesar, and all of the new Dreamer doctors. And congratulations to the entire, incredible Class of 2023, I am in awe of you and your achievements.”

Durbin also paid homage to fallen Chicago Police Department Officer Areanah Preston, who was set to receive a master’s degree in criminology today from Loyola Chicago. But she was shot to death a week ago in the early hours of the morning, as she arrived home from a patrol shift. 

“She [Officer Preston] wanted to be someone who could build trust and help create peace in this great city, and now she is gone – another victim of this horrific epidemic of gun violence that is tearing our nation apart,” said Durbin. “After the horrific murder of 19 little children in their school in Uvalde last year, the pediatrician who had cared for many of those children, Dr. Roy Guerrero, testified before Congress about what he saw and how an AR-15 assault rifle destroys the bodies of little children. His words helped move Congress to pass the most important gun safety law in a generation. A good law – but not nearly enough to bring peace to our streets. Our world is filled with medical miracles, but also with savage health inequities and unnecessary suffering. Don’t listen to the cynics who would tell you to ‘stay in your lane.’ Speak out.”

Durbin’s full remarks as prepared for delivery appear below:

President Reed, Provost Callahan, Dr. Marzo, faculty and administrators, family and friends, it is an honor to join you on this happy day

And to the stars of this show, the reason we are all here, Loyola University Chicago’s Class of 2023, let me say: Congratulations!  Hallelujah!  You made it!  Soon you’ll be trading these black gowns for white coats, and we couldn’t be prouder of you.

I have a few thoughts to share with you.  But first, I want to wish an early Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers.

I am who I am today because of my mother.  Her name was Anna. She came to this country with her family, from Lithuania, when she was 2 years old. At the time, Lithuania had been occupied by Russia for more than a century.

My mother’s family arrived here with almost nothing.  One of their most precious possessions was a Catholic prayer book written in Lithuanian. They had kept it hidden for years because both their faith and their language were banned during the occupation.

Like nearly every immigrant I have ever met, my mother believed in honest, hard work. And she believed deeply in America.  And I want to thank Loyola Chicago for believing in immigrants.

In 2012, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine made a brave commitment.  You became the first medical school in America to openly admit DACA students. 

Today, six of those Dreamers are receiving their M.D.s, bringing to 38 the total number of DACA recipients who have graduated from this outstanding medical school.

Among these six new Dreamer doctors is Cesar Montelongo Hernandez. To our knowledge, Cesar is the first DACA recipient in the nation – in the nation – to earn an M.D./Ph.D.  

Congratulations, Cesar, and all of the new Dreamer doctors. 

And congratulations to the entire, incredible Class of 2023, I am in awe of you and your achievements.

I want to tell you about another physician who inspired me. I met him about a decade ago at a hospital he helped establish in the poorest country in our western hemisphere.  

We had to travel more than an hour from the Haitian capital of Port au Prince over terrible roads to reach him.

But at the end of those winding, rutted roads we found an outpost of humanity – a modern hospital and community health center where doctors from all over the world brought their best skills to serve some of the poorest people on Earth.

Who was this man who had created this island of hope, I wondered?

Well, his name was Paul Farmer. And he was an infectious disease doctor who battled epidemics, disease, disaster, despair, and inequality on four continents.  

He grew up in Alabama and Florida, in a family that knew what it meant to struggle.  One summer they worked alongside Haitian migrant workers picking oranges.

He attended Harvard Medical School on scholarship, earning a medical degree and a PhD in medical anthropology.

He went to Haiti and, with a handful of like-minded friends, founded an organization called Partners in Health, which remains to this day one of the most admired health care institutions in the world.

Over the course of nearly 40 years, Paul Farmer became a healer to the poorest of the poor.  Partners in Health doctors worked in Haiti, the Navajo Nation, Rwanda, Lesotho, Malawi, Mexico, Peru, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Russia, Nepal, and dozens of other countries.

What motivated Paul was a deep conviction that no one was too poor to be entitled to health care.

Last year, Paul Farmer died in Rwanda, where he had been teaching.  He was 62 years old.

So why do I tell you his story today? One reason is that I expect that some of you, like Paul Farmer, will use your skills and knowledge to heal the sick and improve health systems in poor nations, and bless you for it.

But you don’t have to travel to Haiti or Sub-Saharan Africa to meet people who live sicker and die younger than their neighbors simply because of who they are, and where they live.

Just take the Blue Line from the Loop to the “L” stop in East Garfield Park. Between those two Chicago neighborhoods – just five miles apart – life expectancy plummets 16 years. 

Or go to a small rural town in Southern Illinois – or any state, really – where the hospital has just closed, the town’s only doctor is about to retire, and the nearest emergency room is now 25 miles away.

Our City, our State, and our Nation need the unique skills you have in the healing arts.

Two years ago, I authored a plan to add a billion additional dollars to the National Health Service Corps to provide scholarships and loan forgiveness for doctors and other health providers who practice in underserved communities in America. 

My plan was passed as part of President Biden’s larger American Rescue Plan, his COVID relief plan.  I hope you will consider that option – to practice in a community where you are desperately needed. 

As physicians and medical researchers, you are among the most admired and trusted members of our society.  I hope you will do as Paul Farmer did – to heal your patients, and sometimes also to change those things in the world that cause too many people to live sick and die too young in the first place.

Today is a day that Officer Areanah Preston and her family had looked forward to with much hope and anticipation. 

Officer Preston was scheduled to receive a master’s degree in criminology today from Loyola Chicago.

But she was shot to death a week ago in the early hours of the morning, as she arrived home from a patrol shift.  

She wanted to be someone who could build trust and help create peace in this great city, and now she is gone – another victim of this horrific epidemic of gun violence that is tearing our nation apart.

After the horrific murder of 19 little children in their school in Uvalde last year, the pediatrician who had cared for many of those children, Dr. Roy Guerrero, testified before Congress about what he saw and how an AR-15 assault rifle destroys the bodies of little children.

His words helped move Congress to pass the most important gun safety law in a generation.  A good law – but not nearly enough to bring peace to our streets.

Our world is filled with medical miracles, but also with savage health inequities and unnecessary suffering. Don’t listen to the cynics who would tell you to “stay in your lane.”  Speak out.

And I hope some of you will change the world in another way.

One of the people I admire most in this world is a physician and medical researcher – Francis Collins, the former director of the National Institutes of Health.

Six years ago, I asked Dr. Collins:  What does the NIH need? He replied: “Give us five percent real growth in our budgets each year and we will light up the scoreboard with wins.”

So, I went back to the Senate, found a few good partners – Republicans and Democrats – and we made a commitment to do just that.

Over the last six years, that bipartisan commitment has enabled us to increase the NIH’s budget from $30 billion to $48 billion – a 60 percent increase.  

That funding has enabled brilliant doctors and researchers like you and others at Loyola Chicago to search for new treatments and cures for illness and disease.

I will continue to fight for medical research funding, hospitals, community health centers, and other priorities to support your work, and the health of our nation.

But today, we celebrate you. Each of you has worked hard and sacrificed much to become doctors and researchers. Francis Collins says that NIH should really stand for the National Institutes of Hope. 

And that’s what I see when I look at you.  So, congratulations, Loyola Chicago’s brilliant Class of 2023. Here’s to you and your future – and to hope.

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