Above Dr. David Milling and Dean Allison Brashear shake the hand of a student receiving her white coat.

Celebrating our First-Year Medical Students at White Coat Ceremony

Published August 8, 2022

This past week, I had the privilege of attending my first White Coat Ceremony with the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo. What a wonderful day it was, full of excitement and anticipation for faculty, staff, and families there to celebrate this new chapter in the lives of our medical students.  

We welcomed the largest class in Jacobs School history, beating the Class of 2022 by a smidge. The Class of 2026 is comprised of 184 distinguished students, selected from more than 5,000 applicants. This year, 163 students are from New York State, 77 are from Western New York and 39 earned their undergraduate degrees from UB. During the next four years, I hope they get to see all the wonderful things that the Buffalo area offers and choose to become part of our community upon their graduation.

Seeing these students cloaked in their white coats took me back to my early days as a medical student taking my first patient history. My facilitator, and later mentor, told me I should think about wearing my white coat. It made me seriously consider what a privilege it was to care for others … to be part of my patients most personal activities — their health. The white coat is a symbol of healing for health care professionals and that necessary trust in the doctor-patient relationship.    

As the dean of medicine and vice president of health sciences, it is my honor to watch our students grow throughout their demanding, humbling and greatly rewarding journey, that starts with the White Coat Ceremony. In four years, I will also have the pleasure of being there at their graduation when the journeys are complete.

Please join me in congratulating all our medical students and welcoming them to the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.  

You can watch the video from August 5 here https://buff.ly/3zCF5Kk and view photos on Instagram at https://instagram.com/jacobs_med_ub/.

 
With warmest wishes,


Allison Brashear, MD, MBA
Vice President of Health Sciences
Dean, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences