Looking Toward Fall: Week of September 23rd

Students, Faculty, Residents, Staff, Alumni, Board Members and friends,

Well, the calendar says it is fall but the temperature certainly doesn’t feel like it! I guess September in Philadelphia can go either way – this year it’s hot!

I want to wish all of our Jewish colleagues and friends a very Happy and Healthy New Year as you celebrate Rosh Hashanah this week and prepare for Yom Kippur next week. May this year be peaceful and prosperous.

I’d like to congratulate those students from our Occupational Therapy program who were inducted into Pi Theta Epsilon, the national honor society for occupational therapy students. This represented

the third ceremony of this type for the University’s Delta Mu chapter. This year’s inductees were: Josie Bachman, Rachel Bosley, Mary Burzinski, Kelsey Clawson, Michael Eppel, Amanda Feinberg, Colleen Gannon, Andrew Goble, Kristin Hart, Amber Kilmer, Haley Kooistra, John Merz, Forest Miller, Arielle Mosche and Alyssa Soorikian.

As September starts to wind down and we look to October, we start to think about fall commencement. This year, for the first time, we’ll be holding the ceremony at the Kimmel Center for

Performing Arts, the same location for our May commencement and most recently our White Coat Ceremony. Because this tends to have a smaller audience, the ceremony will be held in the Perelman Theater as opposed to Verizon Hall. We’ve very honored to welcome Dr. Rachel Levine, the Physician General for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Acting Secretary of Health as our commencement speaker. Dr. Levine will also receive an honorary Doctor of Science degree at the ceremony. Please put October 9, 2 p.m. on your calendars as this promises to be a very memorable event.

As I’m writing this in the middle of the weekend, I hope everyone enjoys the rest of the weekend. Take advantage of the nice weather as I imagine all this warm weather will give way to cooler days in the weeks ahead. Be safe and have fun. We look forward to welcoming our very dedicated and talented Board of Trustees on campus this Monday for their quarterly meeting.

Best,

Mike

Michael H. Mittelman, OD, MPH, FAAO, FACHE