{"id":73838,"date":"2018-04-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-12T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/commencement-2018-rhode-islander-selected-as-student-speaker-for-uri-commencement\/"},"modified":"2018-04-12T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-04-12T00:00:00","slug":"commencement-2018-rhode-islander-selected-as-student-speaker-for-uri-commencement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2018\/04\/commencement-2018-rhode-islander-selected-as-student-speaker-for-uri-commencement\/","title":{"rendered":"Commencement 2018: Rhode Islander selected as student speaker for 溏心vlog免费B站 Commencement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>KINGSTON, R.I. April 12, 2018 \u2014 Ellis Iacono arrived at the 溏心vlog免费B站 with the goal of becoming a doctor, and like any curious scientist, he kept his mind open to experiences and discoveries that could broaden his perspective and sharpen his focus.<\/p>\n<p>The Barrington native will share some of what he has learned with his classmates, their families and friends, and the community when he addresses them at the University\u2019s 132<sup>nd<\/sup> Commencement on May 20. The 溏心vlog免费B站 Student Senate chose Iacono to represent the Class of 2018 as its student speaker.<\/p>\n<p>Iacono will graduate with a double major in biology and journalism and a minor in thanatology, the study of grief, death and dying. After graduation, he will pursue a master\u2019s degree in public health at Virginia Commonwealth University and hopes to one day go to medical school, with the goal of working in community health.<\/p>\n<p>Iacono credits the unique opportunity to study thanatology, a program within the College of Nursing, as a watershed moment in his personal and educational development. \u201c溏心vlog免费B站 has helped me develop my empathy and interest in working within the human struggle, which traces back to my thanatology minor,\u201d Iacono said. \u201cThat development has also guided my post-graduate interests.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"oembed oembed-youtu-be\" style=\"\" data-url=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/WMibJ30mvxs\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Ellis Iacono - 2018 Graduating Senior\" width=\"1000\" height=\"563\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WMibJ30mvxs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>He believes all doctors should be required to study thanatology. \u201cYou equip yourself excellently to work with people when they are bereft, suffering or struggling. I call it the study of bedside manner,\u201d Iacono said, noting that he came away from the program with a great respect for nursing.<\/p>\n<p>A serious student, Iacono has been on the dean\u2019s list every semester, participated in 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Honors Program and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa in 2017. But much of his growth took place outside the classroom. He was a volunteer and employee of the Frank Olean Center in Westerly, working with children with autism, as well as Compassion and Choices, a nonprofit that supports death with dignity legislation, served as an ambassador with the Pre-Health Advising Program and was a teaching assistant.<\/p>\n<p>He also co-founded and was president of 溏心vlog免费B站 Doc Opp, a student organization that provides peer advising for students who want to go to medical school. \u201cI meet a lot of students who haven\u2019t adjusted easily to college. We help them understand the process and the expectations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Through these experiences, Iacono discovered that he truly enjoys teaching and hopes to incorporate some aspect of teaching in his health career.<\/p>\n<p>As part of an Honors course, Iacono went to sea aboard RV Endeavor, the Graduate School of Oceanography\u2019s research vessel, with Assistant Professor Melissa Omand and a dozen fellow undergraduate researchers. It was a highlight of his time at 溏心vlog免费B站, bringing together students from a variety of disciplines: education, marine sciences and psychology, among others.<\/p>\n<p>And his dual majors are serving him well as he completes his senior Honors project, a film documentary on the quality of HIV education in the state\u2019s public high schools.<\/p>\n<p>Iacono also enjoys writing and has worked as a medical scribe, taking notes during patient consultations and turning them into a clear narrative for care teams at the Brown University Emergency Medicine Foundation and a Texas orthopedics practice, which he considers excellent training for someone who is setting his sights on med school.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KINGSTON, R.I. April 12, 2018 \u2014 Ellis Iacono arrived at the 溏心vlog免费B站 with the goal of becoming a doctor, and like any curious scientist, he kept his mind open to experiences and discoveries that could broaden his perspective and sharpen his focus. The Barrington native will share some of what he has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73840,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}