FAU Welcomes Inaugural Class of its New Medical School with Time Honored White Coat Ceremony

In the presence of more than 500 guests, the 64 students who make up the inaugural class of Florida Atlantic University’s new Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine received their first white coats at a ceremony held in August to symbolically confirm their commitment to the profession of medicine. The doctor’s white coat has served as the pre-eminent symbol of physicians for more than 100 years. At the conclusion of the ceremony, the students recited in unison an “oath” they collectively wrote, which will serve as a code of conduct they are committed to following throughout their education and as physicians after medical school.

 

The 64 students in the inaugural class come from all walks of life, but they share the drive and passion to become physicians and help patients. Among the class members are a football player, a patent lawyer, a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force, a former bio-defense scientist, a philosopher, martial artists, musicians, two students with exceptional research backgrounds who have been admitted to the FAU/Scripps Florida M.D./Ph.D. program, a science teacher, and the youngest member who is only 19 years old.