DAYTON — After four or more years of intense study and specialized training, 100 medical students in the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine class of 2016 received their M.D. degrees during the school’s commencement ceremony at the Benjamin and Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center on Friday, May 27.

Cara M. Wolters, of Sidney, was one of the graduates receiving her degree.

In addition to the conferring of degrees, the event included a “hooding ceremony” in which graduates received traditional regalia denoting their status and profession. They also took a professional oath to mark the start of their medical careers and signed a registry to commemorate their first use of the initials M.D. following their names.

In July, the graduates will begin prestigious residencies and receive advanced training in the medical specialties of their choice. The new physicians will enter outstanding residency training programs in Dayton, throughout Ohio and nationwide, including Case Western/University Hospitals Case Medical Center, Stanford University Programs, University of Michigan Hospitals, University of Southern California, Wake Forest University and the Boonshoft School of Medicine. (See medicine.wright.edu/match.)

The Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine is a community-based medical school affiliated with seven major teaching hospitals in the Dayton area. The medical school educates the next generation of physicians by providing medical education for approximately 420 medical students and 440 residents and fellows in 13 specialty areas such as surgery, family medicine and emergency medicine. Its research enterprise encompasses centers in the basic sciences, epidemiology, public health and neuroscience.

Margaret M. Dunn, M.D., M.B.A., dean of the medical school, presented the Dean’s Award to graduating student Matthew T. Scott, for demonstrating a commitment to academic excellence, embodying empathy and compassion toward others, exemplifying personal integrity and professionalism and earning the respect and trust of classmates and faculty.

The medical school presented several other awards.

The Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award was presented by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation to graduate Cara M. Wolters and to faculty member Erica Taylor, M.D., assistant professor, pediatrics, for consistently demonstrating compassion and empathy in the delivery of care to patients.