By: Meredith Mann
Anjali Mahajan was glad to be back in Philadelphia, where she’d obtained her undergraduate degree, and where the community organizers she met taught her how she wants to approach medicine.
Adaeze Olikagu was a long way from her home country of Nigeria, where health care resources aren’t always very accessible and drove her decision to enter the medical field.
And Daniel Yong, who grew up in St. Paul, MN, was right back where he came into the world—Yong was born at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania to parents who did their postdoctoral research at Penn. (“I spent a large part of my early childhood on Penn’s campus,” he recalled.)
On August 16, these new Perelman School of Medicine students and 151 more gathered at Irvine Auditorium for the annual White Coat ceremony. Each grinning first-year in turn crossed the stage and donned their white coat for the first time, assisted by the advisory deans of their houses (Dickens, Mossell, Rhoads, and Wood).
A medical student class with diverse personal backgrounds and stories
As they took the stage, each new student shared a fun fact about themselves. In doing so, they revealed that this class includes a former ballet dancer, a dedicated half-marathon runner, a mariachi violin player, and a trapeze artist. One breeds fish, another as a child ate a whole bottle of vitamins in hopes it would prevent illness. A student described nearly giving up medicine to become a game designer; a classmate spent a year living in a 13th-century Belgian monastery.
This year’s incoming class hails from 21 states and 68 different schools around the nation. One-fifth of them are pursuing an MD/PhD program. Twenty-nine percent of incoming students identify as coming from a low-income household, 10 percent as the first in their family to go to college, and 16 percent as LGBTQ+, underscoring Penn Medicine’s commitment to fostering an inclusive environment that mirrors the diverse populations these future physicians will one day serve.
The new students grinned, applauded their peers, and when all were wearing their bright white coats, they took The Physician’s Pledge: The Declaration of Geneva. This modified version of the Hippocratic Oath requires new students to pledge—among other key duties and ethics of the field—to treat the ill to the best of their abilities and preserve each patient's privacy.
Advice from medical school leaders
“We must always remember that it’s service to the patient, service to the community, that is our goal,” said Suzanne Rose, MD, MSEd, senior vice dean for medical education. “We all look forward to sharing this journey with you.”
“Everybody here is here to help you succeed,” agreed Jonathan Epstein, MD, interim executive vice president of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System and dean of the Perelman School of Medicine. He noted that by the end of the students’ medical school careers, they will have developed “intangible skills that will serve you as a physician: respect, empathy, compassion.”
A lesson in listening
Keynote speaker Aba Barden-Maja, MD, MS, a professor of Clinical Medicine, issued a warm welcome to the new students, saying, “Every single one of you belongs, and we are so grateful and honored to have you join our Penn family.”
She described the mission of doctoring, and assured the students that they are up to the task: “Within each of you is a fundamental and underappreciated superpower—the ability to listen from the heart.”
To that end, each student was also gifted a brand-new stethoscope, in honor of the Medical Class of 1969’s 55th Reunion, by members of the class Louis Kozloff, MD; Edward T. Anderson, MD; Daniel D. Bikle, MD, PhD; and Bob Carithers, MD. “Think of your new stethoscopes as reminders to listen,” urged Kozloff. (He was unable to attend the event, so Barden-Maja shared his remarks.) “By listening, you will be able to allay some fears, restore some confidence, and—most importantly—make that patient feel better. That is our primary purpose as physicians. Listen!”