The Penn State College of Medicine's class of 2013 participated in the annual White Coat Ceremony this past Friday, Aug. 7. During the ceremony, members of the class of 2013 received their first white medical coats, symbols of their entrance into the medical profession as student physicians. Students then recited the Hippocratic oath, the universally recognized creed for physicians. With an incoming class of 144 students, medical student enrollment at the College of Medicine has increased by 16 percent since 2001, a promising statistic considering an impending national shortage of physicians. The College of Medicine initiated its annual white coat ceremony in 1996 with funding support from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation, a public foundation fostering humanism in medicine. A white coat ceremony or similar rite of passage takes place at more than 90 percent of schools of medicine and osteopathy in the United States.
For photos from the ceremony, visit http://live.psu.edu/stilllife/2114 online.