Trinity School of Medicine held its 2016 graduation ceremony at the Fox Theater in Atlanta on Saturday, June 4th.

While Trinity is an international medical school with its campus on the island of St. Vincent, the school is tightly connected to medical education in the state of Georgia. This year, three of the graduating students are starting residencies at the Mercer University School of Medicine in the specialties of surgery, family medicine, and pediatrics, joining other Trinity graduates already in the Macon-based program.

The ceremony included a key note address from surgeon-in-chief emeritus of the Washington Cardiovascular Institute, Dr. Richard N Scott. Trinity has the privilege of Dr. Scott overseeing its ACGME approved core and elective clinical clerkships for Trinity’s 3rd and 4th year medical students.

Other speakers included Trinity president Steve Wilson (Georgia entrepreneur), dean Dr. Linda Adkison (renowned professor of genetics, molecular biology, and biochemistry, as well as a former associate dean at Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences), Dr. Sir Frederick Ballantyne (cardiologist and governor general of St. Vincent and the Grenadines), and Trinity’s chancellor Dr. Douglas Skelton (former chief of psychiatry at Grady Hospital, former medical director of the Georgia Mental Health Institute, sixteen-year dean of Mercer University School of Medicine, and ten-year chair of the Georgia State Health Policy Council as appointed by two GA governors).

Trinity’s graduates are primarily made up of wholly qualified students that were either drawn to Trinity’s approach to medical education (supportive environment, clinical emphasis, global health outreach), or overlooked by the highly competitive United States medical school system. Beyond its close ties to Georgia (the school’s offices are actually in Alpharetta), Trinity’s ultimate goal is to significantly impact the nation-wide physician shortage by training caring, innovative, adaptive doctors ready to address the healthcare needs of any community.