“All of you are special, don’t ever forget that. I hope your journey will be joyful and meaningful and that all of you get to actualize your magnificent potential,” said Dr. Robert I. Grossman.
Credit: Joe Carrotta
On May 14, NYU Grossman School of Medicine’s class of 2025 celebrated 96 new graduates at Carnegie Hall, also marking the last time that Robert I. Grossman, MD, will preside over the ceremony after 18 years as dean of the school and CEO of NYU Langone Health.
With his retirement set to begin at the end of August, Dr. Grossman reflected on what factors influenced his career, with the aim of giving graduates a few principles they can take with them as they head into the next chapter of their careers.
Ken Langone takes the stage for his final graduation remarks as the chair of NYU Langone’s board.
Credit: Joe Carrotta
“I failed at many things and learned from those defeats. The net of it was that even unsuccessful endeavors refined my coping skills, and those attributes turned out to be career assets,” said Dr. Grossman, whose legacy includes the institution’s becoming the first top-ranked medical school to offer free tuition and providing individualized three-year pathways for students to start their careers sooner while remaining as prepared as students in four-year programs.
Among the graduates this year, Ravi Pancholi is one who had a journey of discovering medicine without the burden of predetermined expectations. Born in Texas to immigrant parents outside the medical field, Ravi had an early life shaped by his father’s unstable career as a supply chain manager, which caused his family to migrate across the Midwest before settling in New Jersey, and his mother’s job as a special education teacher.
“Neither of my parents knew much about the road to becoming a doctor,” Ravi said about his path into medicine. “Their priorities were to make sure my sister and I had enough to eat and more opportunities in life than they had themselves. Therefore, their reaction to my acceptance to NYU Grossman School of Medicine was more confusion than anything else.”
Ravi forged his path through curiosity rather than expectation. It was a chance encounter with neuroscience in middle school and later an undergraduate course at NYU called How We See that sparked his passion. Though his journey took nine years, Ravi’s internal motivation kept him going through the challenges of being the first in his family to walk this path. He’ll begin his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in the coming weeks.
Emily Johnson grew up in a Wisconsin village of fewer than 500 people. Her brother’s birth when she was eight years old set her life on an unexpected trajectory. “I was one of his main caregivers until I graduated college,” Emily said about her brother, who has Down syndrome and autism.
Those early experiences shaped her understanding of medicine from a caregiver’s perspective. “My mom is an absolute rock star and worked full-time and is his caregiver, which is also a full-time job,” said Emily. “I went to a lot of my brother’s medical appointments, and I felt like his doctors couldn’t really appreciate what my mom was doing in the background.”
This insight led Emily to complex care pediatrics, a relatively new field focused on children with medical complexity. Her choice reflects Dr. Grossman’s sixth principle, which he shared with graduates in his speech: “Don’t always choose what appears to be the most attractive or popular path—find what interests you the most, because that will keep you engaged. It is a long road.”
For Emily, who matched at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, NYU Langone’s free tuition initiative made her medical education possible. “I don’t know if I would’ve felt comfortable from a financial standpoint, moving to New York City and living here for several years in Manhattan, if I didn’t have free tuition,” she said. “I’m going into pediatrics, which is one of the less compensated specialties of medicine, but I also feel freer to do that knowing that I have hundreds, thousands of dollars less debt to pay.”
Roxana Ghadimi, who matched at University of California, San Francisco in psychiatry, represents another facet of medical discovery—one that involves changing course. Initially drawn to obstetrics and gynecology, Roxana worked at a fertility clinic before medical school, but her perspective evolved during her training.
“I’m ultimately not a surgeon. My interest in medicine and psychiatry lies not in definitive fixes but in unanswered questions and in leaning into uncertainty rather than shying away,” said Roxana.
This realization aligns with Dr. Grossman’s 13th principle, also part of his commencement remarks: “Humility is critical. That doesn’t mean you should fade into the woodwork. It means remembering that genuine self-confidence is at the opposite end of the spectrum from arrogance.”
Roxana’s humility allowed her to recognize where her true strengths lay—not in surgery but in psychiatry, particularly reproductive psychiatry focusing on women’s mental health.
Medical school stretched these graduates in ways they never anticipated. “I think if I had known how challenging this path would be, I might have hesitated. But I’m proud of the person it’s shaped me into,” Roxana said. Like Dr. Grossman, these graduates have developed resilience through their challenges.
Joseph Obiajulu is another graduate who walked across the stage from a distinctive path. During graduation, Joseph’s upcoming promotion from first lieutenant to captain in the U.S. was ceremonially observed. His colonel joined Dean Grossman and Robert M. Montgomery, MD, DPhil, director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute, on stage to present the ceremonial pins.
Joseph has lived a life steeped in Dean Grossman’s fifth principle: “Depth of knowledge is very important. Read, absorb, and be engaged. Be ready and seize opportunities.”
He was an entrepreneur and a programmer before he ever considering medicine. Everything changed when he shadowed a friend who was a resident in a cardiac intensive care unit. “In that 10-minute encounter, I saw more meaning than everything I’d been doing as a programmer for 2 years.” While Joseph will remain at NYU Langone as a surgical intern pursuing his goal of becoming a cardiac surgeon, his curiosity and openness will be tools to his success.
Dean Grossman and Ken Langone celebrate the next generation of healthcare providers.
Credit: Joe Carrotta
Dr. Grossman left the podium with a few final words: “All of you are special, don’t ever forget that. I hope your journey will be joyful and meaningful and that all of you get to actualize your magnificent potential.”
These graduates are living Dr. Grossman’s legacy—finding their unique paths, pursuing their passions with humility and persistence, and preparing to make their own contributions to medicine with the optimism that they, too, can accomplish anything.
NYU Grossman School of Medicine: Class of 2025 Snapshot
- Median college GPA: 3.97, the highest in the nation
- Median MCAT score: 522 (tied for No. 1 nationally)
- 60 percent of the Class of 2025 received five or more acceptances, and 15 percent received ten or more acceptances. In comparison, 60 percent of medical school applicants nationwide receive only one acceptance.
- 99 percent of the Class of 2025 matched, many to other top residency programs.
- 40 percent of the Class of 2025 chose NYU Langone for residency training.
Media Inquiries
Arielle Sklar
Phone: 646-960-2696
Arielle.Sklar@NYULangone.org
