Top medical students in the fifth graduating class of NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine commemorated receiving their medical degrees during a ceremony at the Tilles Center in Greenvale on May 18, with each promising to enhance medical care in communities experiencing a shortage of much-needed primary care physicians.

Gladys M. Ayala, MD, MPH, dean of NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine, led the graduating class of 25 students in reciting their medical Hippocratic Oath. Alec C. Kimmelman, MD, PhD, dean of NYU Grossman School of Medicine in Manhattan and CEO of NYU Langone Health, delivered the commencement address.

“This school was built with a clear purpose: to train outstanding physicians who choose primary care and serve where the need is greatest. That need is real. It’s growing across the country, and it’s especially clear here on Long Island. You saw that need and stepped toward it. That says a lot about you,” said Dean Kimmelman. “This is the beginning of your careers in medicine, and your education has deliberately emphasized empathy, communication, and human connection. These are not secondary qualities or ‘soft skills’; they are core competencies—practiced, refined, and essential to great medicine.”

The Mineola medical school was the first in the nation to offer a three-year, tuition-free degree with a focus on primary care. Its mission is to help address the shortage of primary care physicians on Long Island and throughout the New York area.

“We are proud to say that more than 70 percent of this year’s graduating class will be staying in New York for their hospital residencies, and 40 percent of them will remain here with us on Long Island,” said Dean Ayala. “We look forward to seeing how they will apply their clinical and leadership skills to enhance medical care throughout the communities they will be serving.”

For Crystal Y. Mehdizadeh, MD, the student speaker, graduation was bittersweet. “I admire the hard work and humility of my classmates. Some are the first to become physicians in their families. Others will carry on a tradition from generations past. Some of us are children of immigrants, and others are immigrants themselves,” she said.

Members of the class of 2026 will pursue their medical careers in specialties such as internal and family medicine, pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology. Graduates who shared their stories include:

• Alexis Castro, MD, a 26-year-old from Queens, who was inspired to become a physician from her family’s experience with chronic illness and the need for medical care in communities with limited resources. Dr. Castro will specialize in family medicine. She said that she is incredibly grateful to not have to pay tuition for medical school and to be able to choose a career without worrying about financial debt.
• Lewam Ghirmay, MD, a 28-year-old who was born and raised in Ethiopia before coming to the US for undergraduate studies at New York University. Dr. Ghirmay will do a residency in internal medicine at NYU Langone Hospital—Long Island. She said that the specialty is not among the highest paid in medicine, but going to a tuition-free medical school allowed her to think less about future compensation and more about what she truly wanted to do for patients.
• Otabek Pulatov, MD, a 33-year-old who grew up in Uzbekistan before immigrating to the US at age 19. Dr. Pulatov had entered medical school at age 17 in his country when his plans were put on hold. He will specialize in internal medicine and said that NYU Grossman Long Island let him act upon his dream, without having to walk away from it a second time.

Dr. Mehdizadeh, who will go into family medicine, dedicated her closing remarks to the memory of her physician father. “Even when he could no longer understand all the words, his head was still buried in medical journals,” she said. “The quiet surgeon, hands long-retired and unable to cure himself, was still learning for the love of helping others. I hope to never lose sight of that.”

NYU Grossman Long Island also offers graduate medical education in more than 20 specialties. Throughout all these programs, the school encourages research collaboration in basic, clinical, and translational sciences to solve today’s most urgent healthcare needs.

About NYU Langone Health

NYU Langone Health is a fully integrated health system that consistently achieves the best patient outcomes through a rigorous focus on quality that has resulted in some of the lowest mortality rates in the nation. Vizient Inc. has ranked NYU Langone No. 1 out of 118 comprehensive academic medical centers across the nation for four years in a row, and U.S. News & World Report recently ranked four of its clinical specialties No. 1 in the nation. NYU Langone offers a comprehensive range of medical services with one high standard of care across seven inpatient locations, its Perlmutter Cancer Center, and more than 320 outpatient locations in the New York area and Florida. The system also includes two tuition-free medical schools, in Manhattan and on Long Island, and a vast research enterprise.

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