Few things symbolize the medical profession as much as a physician’s white coat. For the 104 new students entering Yale School of Medicine as the class of 2021, receiving their white coats at an August 10 ceremony in Harkness Courtyard was their symbolic welcome to the profession. Members of the new class have come to the medical school from 56 undergraduate colleges, and it is a mark of the class’s diversity that it consists of students born in 18 different countries.
As he welcomed the class, Robert J. Alpern, M.D., dean and Ensign Professor of Medicine, suggested it might be overwhelming for new students to contemplate the achievements of those who preceded them at Yale, and natural for them to wonder if they belong at one of the premier medical schools in the country. But he assured them they are worthy successors.
“If we do our jobs, and you do yours, years from now students will walk the halls, wondering if they belong in the same institution that graduated the class of 2021,” Alpern said.
A keynote address followed, delivered by Darin A. Latimore, M.D., the medical school’s deputy dean for diversity and inclusion and chief diversity officer.
“We know that you’ve worked hard,” Latimore said. “We know that you’ve sacrificed a lot. We know you deserve to be here.” He welcomed the class of 2021 to the Yale family—and the family of medicine—with advice for the path the students were about to step onto: listen to your patients.
“My first white coat [received in 1990] symbolized many things. It symbolized I had joined the family of medicine. It also symbolized that I had made it. Unfortunately, it was all about me,” Latimore said. “I ask each of you to look at your white coats differently than I did. I ask you—each and every time you put your white coat on—to remember: it is no longer about you, it is about your patient.”
“To stop listening is to stop learning medicine,” Latimore told the class. “Don’t forget why you came to medical school. My grandfather used to say, ‘No matter where you think you’re going, no matter where you think you are, don’t forget where you came from.’” Latimore called on the newest class to embrace their backgrounds, even as they strive for a common goal.
“I say this to you because medicine is a journey. Many of you will feel that you’re losing yourself as you go down the path. Others of you will feel the culture of medicine is in direct conflict with the culture and values that you were taught as a child,” Latimore said. “Do we have a lot to teach here in medicine? Absolutely! Should you allow us to change you? No.” Latimore’s words struck a chord with students.
“I think it’s so important to make the patients the center of my work,” said David Pepra, an incoming student from Harvard University. “Everything that I’ve gone through for the last six years really came to mind. I think [this ceremony is] a great culmination of all those experiences, and I think that Yale is definitely going to be a very warm place. There’s community here.”
Linette Bosques Nieves, arriving from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, concurred. “With family here, and the meaning that the white coat has for us who have worked so hard to get into medical school, it means a lot. More than graduation, for me.”
Thursday’s ceremony was the first for many of the students and audience members—including proud relatives who had supported their loved ones on their journey to this moment. For Richard Silverman, who is retiring as director of the office of admissions, it was his last after 18 years at Yale. Silverman was presented with an honorary white coat in recognition of his many years of identifying and welcoming exceptional students—1,927 of them in the course of his career.
Newly white-coated, Silverman stepped to the podium one final time to announce each name in the incoming class. Students walked onto the stage, each greeted by a senior member of the faculty to guide them as they placed their arms through one sleeve and then the other, followed by a shrug to get the pristine coat firmly onto their shoulders. The students had officially joined the ranks of more than 200 classes that preceded theirs.
Each student also received a stethoscope—a gift from “generous alumni who want to welcome you to their favorite medical school,” Alpern said. The Physician Associate program will hold its white coat ceremony—at which each incoming PA student will also receive a stethoscope from the alumni association—on September 8.