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Students reciting the physician's pledge
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SIU School of Medicine welcomes Class of 2025 with White Coat ceremony

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A White Coat ceremony on Friday, August 13, celebrated the 83 men and women in the Class of 2025 pursuing a medical degree at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine.

A gathering of family and friends watched as the students received white coats in Carbondale’s Shryock Auditorium and began their journeys to become physicians. The learners spend the first year of training on the Carbondale campus and years 2-4 in Springfield.

SIU Medicine Dean and Provost Jerry Kruse, MD, MSPH, and SIU System President Daniel Mahony, PhD, delivered remarks to the group. Matthew Winkleman, MD, Class of 2002 and president of the school’s Alumni Society Board of Governors, joined the dean in presenting white coats and pins to the students on behalf of the Alumni Society and the Foundation.

Debra Klamen, MD, MHPE, senior associate dean for education and curriculum and chair of the Department of Medical Education at SIU Medicine, led the students in reading the Physician’s Pledge. Associate Professor and Chair of Emergency Medicine Christopher McDowell, MD, gave the keynote address. McDowell received the school’s 2020 Humanism in Medicine Award.

The White Coat Ceremony is designed to establish a commitment to professionalism and empathy in medicine and is held at most U.S. medical schools each fall.

Established in 1970, SIU School of Medicine is based in Springfield and Carbondale and focused on the health care needs of downstate Illinois. It educates physicians to practice in Illinois communities and has graduated more than 3,093 physicians since the first class in 1975.

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