College of Medicine welcomes Class of 2015

“Your son or daughter is about to enter a world that will transform them. They will never be the same, so enjoy this moment.”

With those words, Dr. Mark Multach, associate professor and chairman of the Department of Medicine in FIU’s Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, signalled the start of the medical school’s White Coat Ceremony for the Class of 2015. Eighty-two students entered the medical profession at the annual ceremony.

Each student received a traditional white medical coat. As is customary, the student coats are short in order to distinguish them from doctors when doing their clinical rotations at hospitals. Each student also received a stethoscope donated by Leon Medical Centers, one of the school’s clinical partners.

Dr. Wanda Barfield, director of the Division of Reproductive Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, served as keynote speaker. The Harvard Medical School alumna was the first member of her family to graduate from college. She urged the students to identify leaders and mentors in their lives and spoke of the individuals who helped shape her life. She reminded them that they are entering medicine at an exciting time in history, and praised the approach to medical education taken by FIU’s medical school, saying, “You’re part of an approach to medicine that is revolutionary.”

The year’s class was selected from more than 3,800 applicants and is the largest since the College of Medicine opened its doors in 2009. The students have an average GPA of 3.6 and attended colleges across the country, including schools such as Johns Hopkins, Tufts, Duke, Georgetown, Wellesley College, Vanderbilt, Emory, UCLA, and Notre Dame. Many of the students also are graduates of FIU and other universities in Florida.

Below is a slide show of images from the event. Photos courtesy of Ivan Santiago, FIU Photography.