White Coat Ceremony

I have been hesitating posting these pictures because they are such bad quality. I am not a good photographer and I really need to learn how to take better pictures. In the meantime, you all will just have to deal with bad quality pictures.

Josh Hunt, Mike and Rick Gardener walking in (two other LDS guys who happen to fall around Mike alphabetically)

At the end of orientation week, each college has a white coat ceremony. They used to hold these for third year students, but have since changed to first year. The purpose of this ceremony is to symbolize a student's transition from "pre-clinical" or undergrad work to clinical and medicinal studies. The white coat is shorter that a doctor's coat, symbolizing that they are students. This was really special since they are the first class of Podiatry students at Western University. The white coat ceremony was held on Saturday, August 8th.

Dr. Harkless, Founding Dean

The Dean, Dr. Harkless, welcomed everyone and explained how special this day was and how hard he and others had worked to bring this to pass. A member of Western U's Board of Trustees spoke on how excited they were for this class.

Mike soaking up every word the speakers were saying.

They were lucky to have two practicing podiatrists, one the president of the American Podiatric Medical Association and the other the president of the California Podiatric Medical Association speak. Both doctors did an exceptional job. They spoke about how important it was to support one another in school and in their professional lives since they are now and will forever be colleagues. There were a lot of spiritual undertones in the meeting, which I really appreciated. It was all about putting the patient first and their responsibility to work for the patient and to be the best doctor they can be.

Dr. Jones giving the history of the White Coat Ceremony

Thankfully, the keynote speaker did not show up, so it was a very short and sweet meeting.

Mike waiting for his turn

Each student came to the microphone and told their name and where they were from.

Then their faculty mentor put their white coat on them.

Dr. Christman, Mike's Mentor, presenting him with his white coat

It was so cool to see Mike in the white coat.

Mike is officially a medical student

After that, they stood and gave the Hippocratic Oath and and pledged their commitment to the profession.

It was a really good ceremony and I was so glad that Karma and Jim, Mike's parents, were able to be there with us.

Mike and His Proud Parents

The Proud WifeBack Row: Darren, Seth Middle: Mike and Dr. Harkliss

The faculty of the College of Podiatric Medicine

After the white coat ceremony, we walked quite a ways to a baptist church where they held the convocation. The president of the University spoke to the students. He is such a neat guy. He is the founding president of the college and really cares about each student. On Thursday evening, Dr. Pommerantz and his wife held an ice cream social to welcome all of the incoming students. They have had one every year for 30 years in their own back yard and personally greeted each incoming student. Then Friday night, there was a dinner at a local podiatrists house and Dr. Pommerantz was there as well and we were able to personally speak with him again. It really was a special week. Also, at the convocation, each of the four dean's that were in our session spoke about their college. It was neat to hear the history of some of the other colleges. At the end, Dr. Pommerantz offically opened the 2009-2010 school year. It was so exciting to be offically starting medical school.

After the Convocation, there was a fabulous barbeque at the school. The best part was the free ice cream that they gave away. A big thank you goes out to the Hunts who gave us an extra ticket so Jim could go to all of the events with us. Thank you Hannah and Josh. We had such a good time and were able to met so many of Mike's classmates this week. There are about 9 LDS guys in Mike's class of 37 students. All but 3 are married. We have such a great support system here and are excited to take this adventure with so many new friends.

I am so proud of Michael for perservering and sticking to his dream of going to medical school. I know it was not easy to do, nor is it going to be easy these next few years, but we know it will be worth it in the end.