Colbert's advice: Don't mess up

Med school essentially tries to kill you, Stephen Colbert told graduates Friday at Medical University of South Carolina.

"If you survive, you get to help other people," he said.

At the university's 180th commencement, students received diplomas from the colleges of medicine, nursing, graduate studies, pharmacy, dentistry and health professionals — "who are much better than health amateurs," said Colbert, a Charleston native.

The actor and host of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" tempered the usual advice he gives graduates, which is to go make mistakes.

"The best thing I ever did was give myself the permission to be wrong," he said. "But I can't really give you that advice. I think it's irresponsible for me to tell graduates of a medical college to go out and make as many mistakes as you can."

He congratulated graduates on their transformations. "In the last four years, you've gone from 'I don't want to see that' to 'Hey, come look at this,' " he said.

Shola Gates, 31, of Lexington earned her medical degree and plans to pursue internal medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical School in Richmond. She said the sacrifices to her free time were worth it. "I know I'm going to be independent pursuing the career I've always wanted," she said.

Rachel Sahn, 27, of Charleston also earned a medical degree Friday. After adjusting to the work load and amount of material covered in medical school, Sahn said the most rewarding part of her education was "seeing a difference, even the little things you do for patients matter." She said she will continue in a preliminary medicine program before ultimately pursuing dermatology.

MUSC President Ray Greenberg urged students to remember they are powerful and they can make a difference, despite the downward spiral reported in the news each day. "You are the human stimulus package," he said.

Greenberg also told students they had one more basic test to pass on the basics of hand washing, pointing out available sanitizer on each end of the stage.

The ceremony took place in front of the James W. Colbert Education Center and Library, named last month after Stephen Colbert's father.

Dr. Colbert joined MUSC in 1969 as the school's first vice president of academic affairs. A likely successor to Dr. William McCord as president of the university, he died in a 1974 plane crash and was survived by his wife, Lorna, and nine children.

Stephen Colbert was 10 years old when his father died, and losing a role model so young meant his father's godlike image was "trapped in amber."

He empathized with graduates at the difficulty of the task before them. "Your patients can make mistakes about you, but you can't make mistakes about your patients. At the same time that you will be accused, at times, of being God, your patients may expect from you the perfection of a saint."

But he reminded them, "You are humans, and as such, you always have the right to fail."