Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, New York - Becka Jill Konnayil - welcomes the incoming class of 2026

 

Good afternoon, everyone - esteemed faculty members, families, friends, and most of all, to the incoming Class of 2026: congratulations and welcome.

I am Becka Jill Konnayil, a fourth-year medical student here at the Renaissance School of Medicine, and it is my honor to share this special and deeply personal day with all of you.

I still remember the first time the meaning of the white coat was explained to me. I was just starting college as a pre-med, and a close relative stopped by to explain the weight of the career I had decided to pursue. I listened, but truthfully, standard pre-med optimism blinded me to the sheer scale of the journey ahead.

But when I sat in your seats back in 2023, that conversation came back to me. The coat hanging off my arm felt heavy with the future - yet I still clung to the quiet security of being just a medical student, not yet the one holding the scalpel or writing the orders.

They say the further you get in this career, the coat gets both heavier and lighter at once. A few years from now, you will all be doctors, and your words and actions will carry more weight than ever.

I wish I could tell you medical school is a walk in the park. It isnt. There will be dark moments - nights when you question whether you are meant to be here. Take it from someone who has been in your shoes: you are. You've already earned your place. You have already made it through things you thought would break you.

So on the hardest days, remind yourself why you chose medicine in the first place - for the people. People facing physical illness, psychiatric conditions, the weight of injustice, or a system that failed them and needs someone to show up anyway.

That lesson became very real for me three months ago when my father suffered a massive heart attack.

He needed ECMO - mechanical life support for the heart - and spent seven weeks fighting for his life in Stony Brook's cardiothoracic ICU, cared for by the very team that trained us.

I started CPR on him immediately at home, before the ambulance arrived. I don't think I fully processed what I was doing at that moment - training just took over.

Later, once he was stable, his CT surgeon, Dr. Allison McLarty, walked my mother through everything that had happened at home that day. My mother just nodded - she knew. 

Dr. McLarty paused, looked at her, and simply said: 'That’s how we train our students.';

Those words have echoed in my head ever since. It captures the entire promise of the training you are about to receive right here at Stony Brook: to recognize a person in need, in any setting, at any hour, and to know what to do. Not because you are expected to be perfect. In medicine, there is no perfection. But because you will have been trained to show up.

That is what I hope you carry with you from this room. On the hard days—when imposter syndrome kicks in—remember that you are meant to be here. This school will help make you into the doctor you’re meant to be: one that patients, families, and your team can depend on - truly, a good doctor.

And RSOM's idea of a good doctor is more than clinical skills. 

In addition to robust training, you will also be provided with the resources to be curious past what is required. 

In medicine, we talk a lot about gaps: gaps in research, gaps in the system, and gaps within ourselves. 

Find the gaps that matter to you and work toward filling them. 

Never lose that spark of curiosity - it’s what keeps us striving for improvement.

And the best part is you never have to do it alone. The people sitting near you right now, the ones you have known for only a few weeks, will become the ones who understand your highs and lows - exactly what a hard week feels like without you having to explain it or the celebration after every test regardless of how it went. 

Keep them close, and root for them the same way you will want them rooting for you.

So, to the incoming Class of 2026: welcome. We - the students walking ahead of you, the faculty who trained us and will train you, your families and friends who are prouder today than you may ever fully understand - we are all genuinely glad you are here.

Medicine needs exactly the kind of person you already are. And somewhere down the road, in a moment you can't yet predict, this school will have quietly made sure you know exactly what to do.

Once again, congratulations on arriving at this destination, and welcome to the start of another beautiful journey.

Thank you.