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Jay B. Varkey, assistant professor in Emory’s Department of Medicine and one of the five physicians to treat the first Ebola patients in the United States, was selected on April 6 to be the commencement speaker at Centenary College of Louisiana.
Varkey, along with five of his peers in the Serious Communicable Disease Unit at the Emory University Hospital, aided in the successful treatment of all four Ebola patients at Emory between August and October of 2014.
His experience treating the disease put him on Centenary’s radar after he was first suggested as a potential speaker by a mutual friend of his and Centenary President David Rowe, who graduated from Emory with a Master of Divinity in 1992.
[quote_regular name=”” icon_quote=”no”]“One of the things that was really interesting to us is his very public background in treating Ebola […] but also his background at a liberal arts college,” Centenary Interim Senior Director of External Relations Kate Pedrotty said. Varkey earned his undergraduate degree from Marquette University, which does not have a graduate medical school.[/quote_regular]
Centenary has an undergraduate enrollment of approximately 500 and advertises itself as the “oldest chartered liberal arts college west of the Mississippi River,” but Pedrotty said the college prides itself on the diverse interests of its undergraduates, particularly in the sciences. They aimed to find a blend of the two in Varkey.
”We try to instill in our students an understanding of the world being bigger than their part of it,” she said. “We try to make connections for them between them and what’s going on in the world. The Ebola crisis brings that into very sharp relief.”
— By Ryan Smith
Associate Editor | Ryan Smith is a College senior from Philadelphia majoring in journalism and American studies. He loves journalism and collegiate athletics, and thus considers it a miracle that he’s survived three years at Emory. He joined the Wheel his freshman year as Assistant Sports Editor before serving as Sports Editor and Features Editor. His work has appeared on SB Nation, Uproxx, Atlanta Magazine, Rivals, 247Sports and various DUC napkins, among other places. Nowadays, he can be found covering University of South Florida athletics for Bulls247.com.
