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UB welcomes class of future physicians
A Western New York veteran honored with multiple citations from her tour of duty in Afghanistan. A student with 19 peer-reviewed publications. A break-dancer. A personal caregiver to a quadriplegic. A student who knitted more than 100 hats and blankets for premature babies. A fry cook at a gourmet hamburger restaurant. Several Howard Hughes Research Scholars. A cat socializer at the SPCA.
Members of this diverse group have one thing in common, however: All are members of the incoming class of 2015 in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. On Aug. 19, they all participated in the school's annual White Coat Ceremony in Slee Hall on the UB North Campus. Their distinction in being chosen is all the more evident in the statistics available: Of the 4,512 students who applied for admission to the medical school, 596 were invited to campus for interviews. Of those, 144 were selected for admission. The students’ average GPA was an impressive 3.70.
The White Coat Ceremony is a symbolic “rite of passage” shared by medical students across the U.S. to establish a psychological contract for professionalism and empathy in the practice of medicine.
During the Calling of the Class as part of the White Coat Ceremony, each of the 144 students in the Class of 2015 was called to the stage to be presented with his or her coat, while their undergraduate institutions and hometowns were identified by Charles M. Severin, UB associate dean for medical education and admissions. Michael E. Cain, vice president for health sciences and dean of the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, gave the welcome, telling the students: “You have earned the right to wear one. Now you must earn the right to keep it.”
UB President Satish K. Tripathi gave opening remarks; and Alan J. Lesse, associate professor of pharmacology and toxicology, gave the keynote address.
During the ceremony, Kim Griswold, associate professor of family medicine, psychiatry and social and preventive medicine, was presented with the Leonard Tow 2011 Humanism in Medicine Award.
The ceremony concluded with Cain giving the oath of medicine to these most promising physicians of the future.
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