The White Coat Ceremony

Eighth annual White Coat Ceremony welcomes new students

By Jennifer Reynolds-Sanchez

SEPT. 8, 2004--A packed house welcomed 200 incoming medical students Aug. 23 at the eighth annual UTMB Honors and Awards and White Coat Ceremony.

The White Coat Ceremony is a rite of passage for first-year medical students and a demonstration of the pride and tradition associated with becoming a physician. During the ceremony, new medical students pledge to always do their best for their patients. The white coats they receive are an outward sign of their commitment to compassion and excellence as well as their entry into medical school.

The first White Coat Ceremony was established in 1993 at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. UTMB began its own tradition in 1996, adding the honors and awards element to the event to recognize faculty and current students for their achievements.

“It is with absolute pride and delight that we welcome the class of 2008,” said Dr. Lauree Thomas, associate dean for student affairs and admissions for the School of Medicine. Thomas explained that many who choose a career in medicine do so because they have experienced a calling to serve others. “We embrace the power to comfort and the power to heal,” she said.

Outgoing dean of medicine, Dr. Stanley M. Lemon, offered some insight into the rigors of medical school.

“There will be many experiences you’ll look back on for the rest of your life with wonder and awe and sometimes horror, but mostly with pleasantness,” he said. “If I can say anything to you, I would say keep alive that sense of wonder and anticipation that brought you here today.”

Lemon introduced incoming dean of medicine, Dr. Valerie Parisi. Parisi, will officially assume her position on Oct. 1. The new dean recognized that medical school can be a “difficult and trying time” but called the profession of physician the “noblest profession on the face of this earth.” She also thanked the families of the freshmen for their support and the sacrifices they have made and will continue to make during the next four years.

Parisi acknowledged that although she plans to stay at UTMB longer than four years, this ceremony was a starting-point for her, as well as the students. 

“This is our first day together,” she said.  “Let’s go forward together and really enjoy this journey.”

For the Honors and Awards component of the ceremony, Dr. Tu-Quynh N. Hoang presented the School of Medicine with a gift of three pieces of art on behalf of the class of 2004. Each piece depicted a scene that represented compassion in medicine. Additionally, third-year medical student Tran Cassandra Huynh presented awards to students who had demonstrated academic excellence and several students recognized faculty members for superior teaching and mentoring.

Before donning their white coats, the freshman heard Dr. Ben Raimer, vice president for community outreach, speak about “The White Coat: Cloak of Compassion.”

“Over the next four years you will become a doctor, a physician, a healer,” he said. “I hope that in your class this white coat will become a symbol of medicine, but mostly I hope this coat will be a symbol of compassion.”

Raimer told the students that through the course of their medical education, they would form deep bonds with their fellow students. He also said he expected the class of 2008 to be the very best healers that UTMB has ever graduated.

“Here in Galveston you will have wondrous opportunities to make a difference,” he said. “You’ll have an inside track into the hearts of men and women, and my friends that is a sacred trust. Knowing that you’ve made a difference in someone’s life is not to be taken for granted. Your patients will have a very profound affect on you if you let them.”

Following Raimer’s address the class was presented with their white coats and a pin bearing a laurel leaf and the façade of Old Red, the Ashbel Smith Building, which housed the entire medical school when it opened in 1891.

In their new attire the students stood together and recited the Declaration of Commitment, vowing to serve humanity and respect and be grateful to their medical teachers and their peers.

Syncope, an a cappella group comprised of UTMB medical students, sang before Lemon closed the ceremony with his final remarks. After Lemon's remarks, 200 future physicians exited Levin Hall and entered their first year of medical school at UTMB.