A promise we live by

Roses sit on empty chairs at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs to memorialize the 26 members killed Nov. 5. It was the worst mass shooting in Texas history.
Photo: Scott Ball, Rivard Report

Each of us has our own role to play, contributing through a prism of our personal assets to light our mutual paths. But what we all share in common—what binds us together—is the wish to serve others.

With the arrival of the new year, it seems fitting that we pause a moment to take stock of the challenges and opportunities brought our way in 2017. And, as we reflect upon the strivings and successes of our university, we realize that the story of our institution is always set within the backdrop of the triumphs and tragedies of the world around us.

In late August, when Hurricane Harvey hit our neighbors on the Texas Gulf Coast, members of the UT Health San Antonio community, from emergency medicine personnel to UT Police, were among the first to lend a hand in Houston. Soon after, our School of Nursing faculty and students began to travel twice a month to Rockport to afford its storm victims much-needed health care.

This autumn witnessed a series of terrible losses, including an unfathomable tragedy in Sutherland Springs, Texas, a quiet community just 21 miles east of our San Antonio campus. Again, members of our health science center extended hearts and hands as our trauma and emergency surgeons—joined by physician assistants, nurse practitioners and the full surgical critical-care teams of our partner, University Hospital—leaped into a hard-fought struggle to save innocent lives.

Our faculty, staff, students and residents, together with our partners, donors, alumni and advocates, work daily to bring the light of hope to thousands of lives across the world. From creating a 3-D-printed prosthetic hand to bring encouragement and added mobility to an 11-year-old, to providing dental care for the homeless at Haven for Hope, to investing generous funding from USAA in telehealth counseling for caregivers of military family members, each and every day we live our promise to serve others.

Shoulder to shoulder, with you, we stand together to lift up the world.

 

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