As the Class of 2025 moves from the classroom to the front lines of health care, they carry a powerful legacy of compassion.
When James Wang, a University of Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON) Master of Science in Nursing Entry-into-Nursing program graduate, came back from his military deployment, he was admitted to a psychiatric unit.
Days felt strange, his future unclear, he said.
But the kindness of a nurse on the ward changed his life. “You’re still here. That means something,” the nurse told him. And now, Wang, the student speaker at UMSON’s December 2025 Graduation ceremony, is setting out in a career in that very same field of psychiatric mental health nursing.
“Today, when people look at us, they see the nurses are ready to heal the world, but behind every gown is a journey that most will never see, and that journey connects us across generations,” Wang said during his address. “Nursing is not only a profession — nursing is also a legacy. A legacy is part of us and continues to live in someone we care for. And my legacy came from a military nurse.
“That simple moment changed my life. From her, I inherited something: the courage to keep going and the calling to one day sit beside others in their own darkness. Today, I'm standing here, not only as a survivor, a veteran, but also as a future psychiatric nurse and ready to carry this legacy forward,” Wang added.
On Dec. 12, in the ceremony held at the Hippodrome Theatre at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center in Baltimore, 300 degrees were conferred to summer and fall 2025 graduates, including 234 Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degrees, 59 master’s degrees, four Doctor of Philosophy degrees, and three certificates. Of these, 261 were new nurses entering the workforce.