Only weeks after international, national and local agencies officially declared the end of the COVID-19 pandemic as a health emergency, the USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences’ Class of 2023 celebrated their commencement together on the University Park Campus.

Keynote speaker Janet S. Wright, MD, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention division for heart disease and stroke prevention, encouraged the students to follow their intuition when unexpected life events shifted their perspectives, focus and purpose. In his speech, USC Mann Dean Vassilios Papadopoulos, PharmD, PhD, referenced the pandemic as a source of academic and personal growth for the students.

“These diplomas bearing your names are a testament to the difference you have already made — and are destined to make in the future — in the lives of people everywhere,” he said.

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