PHILADELPHIA – On Friday, August 13, 163 first-year students at Perelman School of Medicine will don their first white coats, a sign of commitment and optimism as they begin learning the art and science of healing. The students come from all walks of life, but they each share the drive and passion to become a physician and help patients. Ranging from 20 to 33 years in age, the newly minted medical students represent 62 colleges from 24 states from around the country – nearly one quarter are from Pennsylvania. Just over half of the class is made up of women, and a quarter of the students come from underrepresented minorities in the field of medicine. The class is also made up of nearly1/3 non-science majors.
In addition to receiving their white coats, the students will also receive another esteemed symbol of the medical profession – their first stethoscope – donated by Rosemary Mazanet, MD, PhD, a Penn Medicine alum and chair of Penn Medicine's fundraising campaign. At the ceremony’s conclusion, the entire class will recite the Hippocratic Oath, one of the oldest binding documents in history, where they will pledge to treat the ill to the best of one's ability, to preserve a patient's privacy, and to teach the secrets of medicine to the next generation.
| WHERE: |
Zellerbach Theatre
Annenberg Center
University of Pennsylvania
3680 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104 |
| WHEN: |
Friday, August 13, 2010, 3 - 5 PM |
| WHO: |
| 3:15 PM |
Keynote address, A Career as a Physician: You Really Have Made theRight Choice, presented by Steven Gluckman, MD, Professorof Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine |
| 3:40 PM |
White coats presented by Gail Morrison, MD, Vice Dean for Educationand Director of the Office of Academic Programs and Stanley Goldfarb,MD, Associate Dean for Curriculum |
| 4:40 PM |
Incoming class recites Hippocratic Oath |
|
*The Penn Medicine Department of Communications can arrange interviews with students and speakers.
Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, excellence in patient care, and community service. The organization consists of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Penn’s Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school.
The Perelman School of Medicine is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $550 million awarded in the 2022 fiscal year. Home to a proud history of “firsts” in medicine, Penn Medicine teams have pioneered discoveries and innovations that have shaped modern medicine, including recent breakthroughs such as CAR T cell therapy for cancer and the mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System’s patient care facilities stretch from the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania to the New Jersey shore. These include the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Chester County Hospital, Lancaster General Health, Penn Medicine Princeton Health, and Pennsylvania Hospital—the nation’s first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional facilities and enterprises include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, Penn Medicine at Home, Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, among others.
Penn Medicine is an $11.1 billion enterprise powered by more than 49,000 talented faculty and staff.