Hi there,
I can tell you about our Short White Coat Ceremony at Howard from two perspectives; Receiver of White Coat and Physician Giving Short White Coat.
Receiver of White Coat: Our Short White Coat Ceremony is held on Friday evening of Orientation Week. It is definitely a family affair. Family and friends are encouraged to come and participate. Since we are located in Washington, DC, we are able to hook some pretty neat speakers. Dr. Benjamin Carson, chief of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University was the speaker at my ceremony. He spoke of excellence in medicine. At the end of his speech, we each filed across the stage and were cloaked by either a member of the clinical faculty or a graduate of Howard University College of Medicine. My cloaker was Clive O. Callender, M.D. the chairman of the Department of Surgery and my faculty advisor throughout medical school. We follow the ceremony with a reception, complete with champagne in the lobby of the Medical School. We were all scared to death.
Physician Cloaking: Each year, a member of Howard University College of Medicine's most recently graduated class is invited back to cloak some of the incoming freshmen students. I had worked with the Admissions Committee during three years of medical school conducting tours. I had also been a peer tutor for both the Medical and Dental schools in Anatomy and Biochemistry. This past year, I was asked to come back to do some cloaking. The speaker for the ceremony was former Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders. She was a hoot to listen to and gave a rousing speech about serving the needy in medicine. When they called my name to come come up to cloak, I got a rousing standing ovation. I almost broke out in tears. I had driven the 100 miles from Charlottesville after being on call the night before. I was standing there in my UVa name badge with Deparment of Surgery sweating on stage under the lights. I was overwhelmed. The idea that I was a physician was really sinking in at this point. I had achieved what 125 folks sitting there in the audience were hoping to do. I had come full circle. I ended up cloaking five or six students but the one student that I cloaked that was the most emotional was a person who had been a member of the Class of 2002 when I started. She had ended up failing two courses and failed again in summer school and was dismissed from medical school. She has gotten married, become a mother, taken some advanced study skills and courses and had been re-admitted for the Class of 2006. Our Dean of students asked me to cloak her and I was so proud of her because she never gave up.
It was cool to meet Dr. Elders at the reception after the ceremony and it was totally awesome to see all of the folks who were sophomores, juniors and seniors after I had graduated. Everyone wanted to know about residency and if I was prepared.
Our Short White Coat ceremony ranks up there with graduation.
Natalie