SIU Med School Beginning Students Participate in Ceremony

Medical students in the Class of 2010 at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine will mark the start of their medical training this Friday in Carbondale. The 72 students will participate in a "white coat ceremony" beginning at 4 p.m. Friday, August 11, in the Student Center, Ballroom D.

The keynote will be given by Dr. Elizabeth Peralta, assistant professor of surgery. The recipient of the School of Medicine's 2004 Humanism in Medicine Award, Peralta is a surgeon who joined SIU's faculty in 2000.

During the ceremony, the students will be welcomed by Dr. J. Kevin Dorsey, Ph.D., dean and provost and a 1978 graduate of the School. They will receive their first white coat from the president of the School's Alumni Society, Dr. Sam Gaines, a Springfield internist and 1977 graduate. The students also receive a pin made up of the words "Compassion, Respect and Integrity" from the SIU Foundation.

The class of 2010 again has most of its 72 students from the southern two-thirds of the state, said Dr. Erik Constance, associate dean for student affairs, associate professor of internal medicine and 1988 graduate. Females in the class out number males again this year, with 39 females and 33 males.

The White Coat ceremony is designed to establish a "psychological contract for professionalism and empathy" in medicine. Students entering most U.S. medical schools this fall will participate in this rite of passage.

SIU School of Medicine is based in Carbondale and Springfield and is specifically oriented to educating new physicians prepared to practice in Illinois communities. It has graduated 2,043 physicians since beginning in 1975.

- 30 -