Commencement Ceremony Information

Penn Dental Medicine’s commencement ceremony for DMD graduates will take place on Monday, May 19th, at 3 pm in Irvine Auditorium (3401 Spruce St). The ceremony will last for approximately an hour and a half.

Class of 2025 DMD graduates should arrive by no later than 2:15 pm for line up. Please use the 34th Street door. A sign will be located outside the door for graduates and faculty. Graduates do not need tickets. Regalia will serve as the ticket to enter.

Doors for guests will open at 2:30 pm. There will be signs and ushers available to direct people. Doors will close at 3 pm sharp; anyone (including ticket holders) arriving after 3 pm will not be allowed to enter as it will disrupt the process.

Any children over the age of 23 months will need a ticket. Please bring a copy (or photo) of the child’s birth certificate or identification with their birth date to be checked at the door. Children under 23 months will need to sit on someone’s lap.

The ceremony will be live-streamed and recorded. View the DMD ceremony livestream »

Graduate Dental Education Programs Ceremony Information:

Penn Dental Medicine’s commencement ceremony for graduate dental education program graduates will take place on Monday, May 19th, at 1 pm in Irvine Auditorium (3401 Spruce St). The ceremony will last for approximately one hour.

Class of 2025 graduate dental education program graduates should arrive by no later than 12:15 pm for line up. Please use the 34th Street door. A sign will be located outside the door for graduates and faculty. Graduates do not need tickets. Regalia will serve as the ticket to enter.

Doors for guests will open at 12:30 pm. Guests should use the Spruce Street door. There will be signs and ushers available to direct people. Doors will close at 1 pm sharp; anyone (including ticket holders) arriving after 1 pm will not be allowed to process as it will disrupt the process.

Any children over the age of 23 months will need a ticket. Please bring a copy (or photo) of the child’s birth certificate or identification with their birth date to be checked at the door. Children under 23 months will need to sit on someone’s lap.

The ceremony will be live-streamed and recorded. View the graduate degree program ceremony livestream »

We are pleased to share that our guest speaker for Commencement 2025 will be Kenneth R. Ginsburg, MD, MSEd. Dr. Ginsburg, Professor of Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Perelman School of Medicine, is the Medical Director for Covenant House, Pennsylvania,  a care system that serves homeless and marginalized youth in Philadelphia. He is also Co-Director of the Center for Parent and Teen Communication, which promotes the health, character, and well-being of adolescents through education, research, and advocacy. He practices social adolescent medicine — medicine with special attention to prevention and the recognition that social context and stressors impact upon both physical and emotional health. The theme that ties together his clinical practice, teaching, research, and advocacy efforts is that of building on the strength of teenagers by fostering their internal resilience.

He developed the teen-centered method, which is a mixed qualitative/quantitative methodology that helps youth to generate, prioritize, and explain their own proposed solutions to social problems and to teach clinicians how to better serve them. In addition to his research publications, he also has five parenting books, all published by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). He is also the author of Reaching Teens: Strength-Based Communication Strategies to Build Resilience and Support Healthy Adolescent Development, a comprehensive multimedia toolkit published by the AAP.

Dr. Ginsburg lectures widely to national and international parent and professional audiences. He has also worked closely with the US Military, the Boys and Girls Club of America, and the National Congress of American Indians to deepen the role of resilience-building strategies in their programming.

Please contact Debra Mancinelli (roused@upenn.edu) with any accessibility needs. We will not be able to provide wheelchairs; however, wheelchair accessible entrance will be available.

Graduates and their families will be welcomed back at the School immediately following the DMD ceremony for light refreshments, additional photo opportunities, and self-guided tours.

We strongly encourage families to consider plans for dinner reservations as restaurants around the city fill up quickly. Events typically wrap up by 6 PM.

We follow the University’s no-bag policy for our Commencement Ceremony. https://commencement.upenn.edu/franklin-field-policies-prohibited-items. No bags are allowed into the auditorium. Please make sure you share this information with your family members to avoid being turned away from the auditorium. We will not have a storage area for their bags.

Parking on campus can be tricky given the University’s urban setting and the volume of visitors during Commencement Weekend.

• Limited metered street parking is available. Most meters take both cash and credit cards. Maximum time limit per payment is 2 – 3 hours depending on location.
• Parking facilities are available, including: 38th and Walnut Street (please use 38th Street entrance); 34th and Chestnut Street; Penn Tower Hotel (34th and Civic Center Boulevard); Sheraton Hotel (36th and Chestnut Streets); South Street and Convention Avenue; 32nd and Walnut Street; 40th and Walnut Street. View the interactive campus map here»

Here are additional resources to help you plan your trip:

• Campus Maps »
• Directions, Parking and Local Transportation »
• Philadelphia International Airport »
• Private and public transportation options to/from the airport »