Boston University

06/08/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 07/08/2024 11:06

BU White Coat Ceremony Welcomes 141 Students to the Profession of Medicine

BU White Coat Ceremony Welcomes 141 Students to the Profession of Medicine

Members of the entering class were born in 18 different countries and hail from 30 states

Karen Antman, dean of the medical school and provost of the Medical Campus (right), helping BU President Melissa L. Gilliam into a white coat at the August 5 White Coat Ceremony. Gilliam was the keynote speaker at the event, which signifies the beginning of medical students' journeys into the study and practice of medicine. Photos by Jake Mackey

University News

BU White Coat Ceremony Welcomes 141 Students to the Profession of Medicine

Members of the entering class were born in 18 different countries and hail from 30 states

August 6, 2024
0
TwitterFacebook

It was particularly fitting that new Boston University President Melissa L. Gilliam-a physician, a research scientist, and an educator-welcomed first-year medical students, their families, and friends at the annual White Coat Ceremony on August 5 on Talbot Green.

"You are entering medical school in a remarkable moment in human history," Gilliam said. "You're entering during a medical inflection point that promises great opportunities, as discoveries and advancements such as gene editing, artificial intelligence, and robotics will lead to breakthroughs we could not have imagined a decade ago."

You're entering (medical school) during a medical inflection point that promises great opportunities, as discoveries and advancements such as gene editing, artificial intelligence, and robotics will lead to breakthroughs we could not have imagined a decade ago
BU President Melissa L. Gilliam

But she also pointed to increasing income inequality and health disparities that could undercut those medical and technological advances for some. She commended the BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and its primary teaching affiliate, Boston Medical Center, for innovative approaches to addressing these challenges.

Gilliam also had words of praise for the accomplishments of Karen Antman, dean of the medical school and provost of the Medical Campus, who announced in May that she would step down from those roles and return to the faculty when Gilliam names a successor.

Bean, BU's community resource dog, joined the ceremony wearing her pink stethoscope and white coat. Photo by Lisa Brown

"During her transformative 19-year tenure, she cultivated a culture of excellence that attracted talent from across the globe," Gilliam said.

Organized by the Student Affairs Office, the White Coat Ceremony signifies the beginning of medical students' journey into the study, and ultimately the practice, of medicine. The white coat symbolizes professionalism, caring, and trust-something medical students must earn from their patients. In a gesture marking the passage of knowledge from one generation to the next, faculty advisors helped students don their new coats for the first time.

"When you put on your white coat…you are now, already, a part of the profession," said Antman, who described medicine as a renaissance profession that engages both heart and mind. "You can't learn it all from a book."

"Keep an open mind," advised Angela Jackson, associate dean of student affairs. "Medicine is a field where you will always be surprised."

The 141 students in this year's 176th entering class were selected from more than 10,700 candidates, and they hail from 30 states. They were born in 18 different countries and 86 percent speak a second language.

"All of you have met academic and personal challenges; all of you have sacrificed much and accomplished a great deal to reach this moment," said Kristen Goodell, associate dean of admissions.

For Marcia-Ruth Ndege, an MD/PhD student, medical school was never a sure thing. When she was 10, her mother-who had been raising three girls on her own but wanted a better future for them-left their home in Nairobi, Kenya, to work for the United Nations in Haiti. The plan was for her to continue to the United States and then send for them.

Anshika Gupta (CAMED'28) and Abigail Cook (CAMED'28) stand for applause after they receive their white coats.

But a historic earthquake hit the island in 2010, killing 250,000 people, including 36 UN workers.

"Thankfully, she was able to get in contact with us a few days later, and she was very much alive," Ndege said. Soon after, her mother was hired to work at the UN in New York and the three girls took a long flight to reunite with her.

In the United States, they moved frequently, seeking affordable housing and good schools. Ndege went to four different high schools, and despite the upheaval, she thrived academically. After graduating from New York State University Stony Brook, she worked for three years in a surgical unit, monitoring patients' nervous systems during surgery, before entering BU as a combined MD/PhD student.

After the White Coat Ceremony, she gathered with her sisters and mother.

"I can certainly feel her pride," Ndege said of her mother. "I don't think she's ever been prouder."

James Ehlers (CAMED'28) is from Taylorsville, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City. After graduating from the University of Utah with degrees in finance and mechanical engineering, he tried out both career options. As a mechanical engineer, Ehlers , a devout Mormon, worked first on rockets intended for space exploration but was reassigned to intercontinental ballistic missiles that could carry nuclear warheads.

Ultimately, that didn't fit with his values. Volunteer work at hospitals helped him decide on a medical career.

"BU had the best preprofessional program [the MS in medical sciences], but I also love the mission of Boston Medical Center," he said.

Teresia Perkins (CAMED'28) is also from Kenya, from one of the poor neighborhoods on the outskirts of Nairobi.

"It was very tough," Perkins said. But she was good at academics. "School was the place where I was free; I could be me."

James McCarthy (CAMED'28) receives his white coat from faculty advisor Megan Young, assistant dean of student affairs.

She came to the United States on a scholarship to attend Arizona State University as a business major. For a decade following graduation, she remained in the United States, working in finance. But she had nurtured a dream of a career in healthcare that harkened back to the time her brother was dying of complications from malaria because they didn't have access to a hospital.

As she learned about healthcare inequities in this country, she decided to leave finance and enter medical school.

"It's an area where I saw myself making a difference," Perkins said. "I felt like my life could really have meaning if I do something I'm passionate about."

James McCarthy (CAMED'28) had to learn how to compensate for a faulty memory after an MRI revealed a brain bleed from a school football concussion. He graduated with a nursing degree from the University of Wisconsin and began working at a hospital near his hometown of Oshkosh, Wisc. He was a few months into orientation when their first COVID-19 patient arrived. For the next two years, he worked in the ICU wearing a "space suit" for protection.

"It was a hard couple of years. There was definitely a feeling of isolation… You're trying to talk to these patients, to make them feel better in any way you can," said McCarthy , who was nominated by his patients for the respected DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses, a national nursing award.

The pandemic, and the isolation it engendered, forged tight bonds among members of the medical team.

"You're taking care of each other," he said. "There's a level of understanding that we were all going through the same things that people outside of medicine might not understand…that we're all in this together."At the close of the ceremony, Heather Miselis (CAMED'00,'04, SPH'00), assistant dean of alumni affairs, led the students in reciting the Hippocratic Oath, which guides physicians in the ethical treatment of patients. The students will recite the oath one more time, when they graduate as practicing doctors.

Explore Related Topics:

  • Share this story
  • 0CommentsAdd

Share

BU White Coat Ceremony Welcomes 141 Students to the Profession of Medicine

Copy URL:Copy

  • Doug Fraser

    Doug Fraser is a School of Medicine public relations associate; he can be reached at [email protected]. Profile

Comments & Discussion

Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.

Post a comment. Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.Required fields are marked *

Comment*view guidelines
Name *
Email *
Submit Comment

Latest from BU Today