August 6, 2007

New Students at SIU Med School Participate in White Coat Ceremony

Medical students in the Class of 2011 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 10, in the Student Center, Ballroom D.

The keynote speaker is Dr. Cynthia Thomas, assistant professor of family and community medicine in Springfield and a 1991 SIU graduate.  The recipient of the School’s 2006 Humanism in Medicine Award, Thomas joined its faculty in 1998.

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, and Dr. Wesley Robinson-McNeese, associate professor of internal medicine and medical humanities, executive assistant to the dean for diversity and a 1986 graduate. Dr. Debra L. Klamen, associate dean for education and curriculum, will read the Hippocratic Oath.

The 2006-07 Mentor of the Year award will be presented to Dr. James O. Alexander, a family practitioner in Harrisburg and a 1988 graduate of the School.  The Class of 2010 selected him for the honor at the end of their first year in Carbondale, in recognition of his work as a volunteer mentor to first-year medical students.

The students will receive a pin with the words “Compassion, Respect and Integrity” from the SIU Foundation. Most of its 72 students in the class are 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. There are 37 females and 35 males.

The White Coat ceremony is designed to establish a “psychological contract for professionalism and empathy” in medicine and is held at most U.S. medical schools each fall.

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 2,130 physicians since beginning in 1975.

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