ESPM Graduation No.100 –A great achievement and story to tell!

On September 2, the School of Public Health of Mexico (ESPM) celebrated its Centennial Class graduation, in which 212 students obtained their masters, doctorate or specialty degree from the various academic programs offered by this institution.

Dr. Eduardo Lazcano, INSP General Director, thanked the invited officials, the institutional community and the companions and graduate families for being present and being part of this great achievement. Receiving this distinction, he recalled, is cause for pride “but with the great responsibility of representing a fascinating scientific discipline such as public health” along with the commitment to meeting population health needs through the production, reproduction, dissemination and use of scientific knowledge. “The achievement of an academic degree, said Dr. Lazcano, is the most important event we have to celebrate because we see our training work cemented and we are proud to be part of graduates’ and their families’ joy”. As well, he invited the recent graduates to assume their generational responsibility, having enough motivation to assume a vision that allows them to identify possible changes and the courage to modify the old structures. “The above, stated Dr. Eduardo Lazcano, cannot be achieved if you do not feel the need to permanently educate yourself”.

Dr. Lazcano commented that in tandem with the ESPM Centennial celebration, the reform of its educational model is in motion and constitutes an institutional priority, to contribute to eradicating inequality and inequity in health, as well as to improve people’s quality of life and sustain its dignity in the global arena. Lazcano emphasized the fact that each graduate has a life project in which a work and professional project is housed, which must be based on values and the conceptualization of their main area of knowledge, aimed at ratifying permanently that health is conceived as a public good; as a resource that is neither exclusive nor should it compete with other social and economic priorities. Dr. Lazcano emphasized, “You must promote and strengthen the conditions that create health”.

Later, ESPM representative, Dr. María Minerva Nava Amaya, expressed her pleasure at being a part of this story, of this great achievement of the graduates, their families and the academic body that accompanied them throughout their training process as public health professionals. “”You are a select group in this country,” Dr. Nava said, “because you have reached postgraduate studies; in a country like Mexico where the rate of graduate students does not even reach 0.7%. The dream was fulfilled for you but also for your mothers, fathers, relatives, partners and friends; it is a success shared by the support –both moral and economic– for the love and solidarity of their loved ones”.

“There is nothing more valuable than witnessing our students transcend through one of the noblest achievements, such as education: the achievement that transforms and makes us better people, the one that allows us to grow and be free,” added Dr. Nava. She urged the graduates to hold on to INSP/ESPM values, a noble institution, as well as to “nurture the memory that gives strength and sustenance to its scientific thought and claim a future for youth that needs to recognize itself and be recognized”. She invited all graduates to always be thinkers and “wherever you are, be insatiable when it comes to knowledge”.

Before calling on all graduates, the Centennial Class’ sponsor, Dr. Nadine Gasman Zylbermann, National Institute for Women’s President, congratulated ESPM in her message for the multidisciplinary approach of its academic program, which is also developed based on the highest standards of demand in research, with an orientation to forge and train experts with conceptual and methodological tools, as well as with practice and research from the different sectors and different levels. Dr. Gasman noted that this integrality in its training, in this new moment for ESPM will effect innovation thanks to Dr. Lazcano’ s profound commitment, his academic body and the institutional community as a whole, to integrate the gender perspective at the INSP-ESPM.

Public health – added Dr. Gasman – gives us the tools to understand and act in the social determination of health, in health policies, in health services organization, in everything that makes possible for people to live healthy lives; but not only individually, but community and collective.

The Centennial Class’ sponsor, recalled that although they have yet to face many challenges, she is confident that their conviction and commitment to promote access to universal health will help them be the next leaders that health service’s needs.

After Dr. Gasman’ speech, 212 students received degrees from the different ESPM postgraduate programs.

The top two students were Judith Garza Martínez and Eduardo Daniel Rodriguez Aguilar who, on behalf of the Centennial Class, offered a message focused on the motivation and pride that implies belonging to ESPM community.

Garza mentioned the difficulties and challenges that students had to overcome during the Covid-19 pandemic, forcing the immediate migration of the academic programs from in-person to the online format. However, she stressed that individual and collective efforts are now bearing fruit, allowing them to graduate as specialists, teachers, professors, and doctors in the different concentration areas of public health.

For his part, Rodriguez recognized ESPM staff -for generating, in this complex environment caused by the pandemic-, the propitious environment to develop learning experiences. In addition, he recognized the students’ willingness for adapting to these new learning modalities that allowed them to graduate as public health professionals. “Study and the generation of knowledge are the basis for overcoming adversities,” concluded Eduardo.

A commemorative plaque for the ESPM Centennial was presented to INSP General Director, Dr. Eduardo Lazcano, by the Students’ Association President, Jürgen Adam Sánchez, who expressed his gratitude for the tireless effort that represents the training work of human resources for health, whose scope is not limited to professional and scientific training but transcends into the creation of leaders with social and human conscience, “with a great sense of belonging to this great family and commitment to all of us who make up this great institution, which has repercussions on the well-being not only of Mexico but of all of Latin America and the world.”

Another moving part of the ceremony was the presentation of the professors’ awards. They included, Dr. Erika Marlen Hurtado Salgado, who received from Dr. Nava the award for Young Professors 2022; and Dr. Eduardo Lazcano presented the Miguel E. Bustamante Chair 2022 recognition to Dr. Ileana Beatriz Heredia Pi.

The ceremony of the ESPM Centennial Graduation was enlivened by the centennial and traditional Banda de Tlayacapan that shared memorable moments with the graduates through its traditional musical repertoire.

The ESPM congratulates all its graduates!