The first week of October saw milestones for both the newest students at the UVM Larner College of Medicine, and graduates stretching back eight decades. The College's Class of 2023 celebrated their White Coat Ceremony on Friday, October 4; and from Friday morning through the weekend, Larner graduates from as far back as the Class of 1944 returned to the campus where their medical careers began for Reunion 2019.
The first week of October saw milestones for both the newest students at the UVM Larner College of Medicine, and graduates stretching back eight decades. The College's Class of 2023 celebrated their White Coat Ceremony on Friday, October 4; and from Friday morning through the weekend, Larner graduates from as far back as the Class of 1944 returned to the campus where their medical careers began for Reunion 2019.
Over the past two months, Larner Class of 2023 medical students have been quietly transforming into true physicians-in-training. On Friday they donned the outward symbol of that role—their first doctors’ coats, during the ceremony in UVM's Ira Allen Chapel.
The first White Coat Ceremony was started in 1993 at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons by Arnold P. Gold, M.D., a pediatric neurologist who is renowned for his devotion to Humanism in Medicine. The faculty at UVM's Larner College of Medicine quickly adopted this ceremony because they saw value in Dr. Gold’s insights and felt the need to formally affirm the humanistic aspects of patient care, the call to the vocation of medicine, and the tremendous responsibility that students would be expected to assume.
Following a welcome from Interim Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education and Associate Dean for Students Christa Zehle, M.D., and remarks from Dean Richard Page, M.D., UVM Health Network Medical Group President and CEO Claude Deschamps, M.D., and UVM Medical Center Interim President Stephen Leffler, M.D.’90, attendees heard a Humanism in Medicine keynote address from Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Awardee and Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences Lauren MacAfee, M.D.
Zehle, Associate Dean for Clinical Education Tania Bertsch, M.D., and Assistant Dean for Students at the Larner Connecticut campus Ellen Kulaga, M.D., cloaked members of the Class of 2023 in their white coats, after which, Page administered The Oath, read by the Class of 2023 and physician attendees.
View the White Coat 2019 Slideshow.
From the annual Imbasciani-DiSalvo LGBTQ Health Equity Lecture to a mindfulness breakfast and White Coat Ceremony with current medical students, to class picnics and a celebration of Medical Alumni Association award winners, alumni visiting campus for Medical Reunion 2019 found an action-packed weekend waiting them.
Highlights of the October 4-6 event included the 50th reunion medallion ceremony, when the College community celebrated members of the Class of 1969, and the Celebration of Achievements Award Ceremony to honor Medical Alumni Association (MAA) award winners.
This year's MAA Award winners included Larner Associate Dean of Admissions Janice Gallant, M.D.’89, who received the A. Bradley Soule Award, the MAA highest honor. The Soule Award is presented yearly to an alumnus/a whose loyalty and dedication to the Larner College of Medicine most emulate those qualities as found in its first recipient, A. Bradley Soule, M.D.’28, a key figure in the life of the College from the 1920s through the 1980s, and one of the founders of the Medical Alumni Association.
Read more about
Reunion and Medical Alumni Awardees.
View the
2019 Medical Reunion Slideshow.
Watch the full
White Coat Ceremony.