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Student at NEOMED College of Pharmacy White Coat ceremony

College of Pharmacy Class of 2020 Dons White Coats

What does it mean for a first-year NEOMED College of Pharmacy student to get a white coat?

Monday afternoon in the NEW Center Ballroom, members of the class of 2020 basked in the warm appreciation of their family and friends as Jay A. Gershen, D.D.S., Ph.D., president of NEOMED; Charles Taylor, Pharm. D., dean of the College of Pharmacy; and others welcomed them to their new responsibilities.

What’s next for these new students, after being ceremonially helped into those bright white garments at Monday’s event?

Dr. Gershen urged them to join student organizations, get to know faculty and students, and take the time to build personal memories. Joseph Dikun, Pharm.D.–a member of the College’s inaugural class of 2011 who is now working on a second doctoral degree as a Ph.D. student at The University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy — encouraged the students to stand up for what they believe in and take an active role.

Diane B. Ginsburg, Ph.D., a clinical professor in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Texas at Austin, built her keynote address around a mantra she has drilled into her own students: Remember that every patient is significant to someone. Her own message to students had come poignantly full circle back to her, she said, when her own mother was lying in a hospital bed and a young pharmacist assured her, ‘’Your mother is my ‘every patient.’’’

Dr. Ginsburg said the new pharmacy students were fortunate to work in an academic setting that placed a premium on interprofessional training. Among the throng of students posing for photos after the ceremony, Rashed Thabeteh agreed. The first-year student from Ann Arbor, Michigan, said that the interprofessional training offered at NEOMED had been a factor when he considered options for pharmacy school.

“Before I came to NEOMED I shadowed at a lot of hospitals. At The University of Michigan Hospital, the cooperation between pharmacists and physicians was amazing,’’ he said, adding, “I thought it would be great to build on that here.’’

Among the 93 students comprising the College of Pharmacy Class of 2020 are six recipients of Education for Service scholarship awards from Medical Mutual of Ohio—an organization that Richard Kasmer, Pharm. D., vice dean of the College, thanked for its support. Dr. Taylor presented Ann Klein, R. Ph., a clinical assistant professor of pharmacy practice, with the 2016 College of Pharmacy Leadership Award.

After the ceremony, the crowd was in the mood to celebrate with hugs, refreshments and photos.  As Rashed Thabeteh put it, ‘’This makes it official.’’