Classes of 2024, 2025 to receive white coats


By Roman Petrowski, Office of Communications

White Coat Ceremony

The McGovern Medical School classes of 2024 and 2025 will receive their white coats in a pair of ceremonies May 5 and 6 at Wendel D. Ley Track & Holloway Field on the campus of Rice University.

The Class of 2025 will receive their white coats on May 5 at 6:30 p.m., while the Class of 2024 ceremony will be held the following day beginning at 5 p.m. A livestream of each event will be available on the McGovern Medical School Facebook and YouTube pages.

The ceremony will safely return after a two-year hiatus due to the covid-19 pandemic.

“We are truly elated that we are finally able to safely host this White Coat Ceremony for our first and second year students,” said LaTanya Love, MD, dean of education, ad interim. “This ceremony is a great reminder of the responsibility that comes with being a physician. Our students each sign the ethical pledge and recite the Hippocratic Oath. We look forward to sharing this milestone with our students.”

Generally taking place among the initial days of orientation, the White Coat Ceremony welcomes students to health care practice and shows the value of humanism at its core.

Incoming students hear from guest speakers before receiving their white coats donned with the McGovern Medical School logo. They then participate in the most important element of the ceremony, the Hippocratic Oath, which acknowledges a central obligation of caring for patients.