Dear Students of LMU Seaver College of Science and Engineering,
Since my time at LMU I have had the honor and privilege to teach at Bishop Montgomery High School in Torrance, serve in the United States Air Force as an Anesthesiologist and currently as Medical Director at Sutter Delta Medical Center in Northern California.
The current crisis that we all are experiencing is serious and formidable. It reminds me of my deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq, a time when peace and civility were drowned out by sirens and explosives. During my downtime I daydreamed about my years at LMU, recalling countless hours spent chatting with my mentor Dr. Crawford and working alongside Dr. McElwain in her Drosophila lab. I persisted embodied with the spirit of LMU, where I entered as a high school student with mediocre grades and left not only with a college diploma in hand, but as a more conscientious human being. I would often have to draw upon the lessons that were taught in and outside of the classroom at LMU to successfully navigate the abundant challenges encountered while stationed in a warzone.
LMU serves as a foundation where you the student have the opportunity to learn, grow, enrich, and continue to cultivate all of the aforementioned upon departure. Most importantly, you will embark into the world with not only the desire but responsibility to give back. Like the current pandemic that has stricken our planet, we have the ability to be contagious as well with our love and care for one another. The world has never needed the hearts and minds of kind and caring people more than now.
It has been over two decades since my time at LMU as a student but I still carry with me the values that were instilled as a member of the Jesuit community and Crimson Circle. I value them more and more each day, as the principles of LMU have helped guide me throughout my life. I am confident that together with careful scientific thought and compassionate attentive care, we will successfully overcome our current crisis.
I want to thank Dr. Choe, Dr. McElwain, Dr. Crawford, and all of LMU’s faculty and staff past and present for what they have done for me and what they are currently providing for the student body during these trying times. I sincerely hope they value and appreciate the gift that is Loyola Marymount University and know that no matter how far we venture out into the world, LMU will always welcome us home.
Henry Liu, M.D.
LMU Class of 1997
