Their future as doctors begins now for 74 students – 39 women and 35 men — who have been accepted into the MD Class of 2021 at the University of Hawaiʻi (UH) John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM). They were selected from 2,231 applicants.
During a ceremony at the President William McKinley High School Auditorium on Friday, July 14, 2017 (beginning at 6:30 p.m.), the students were “cloaked” with white, waist-length lab coats. That is what gives the “White Coat Ceremony its name. The future physicians now are instantly recognizable on campus at JABSOM and they will be so later at hospitals around Oʻahu, where they will undergo their clinical training. This year, former Hawaiʻi First Lady Vicky Cayetano and United Laundry Services provided the white coats as a gift to the class.
Watch our recap video:
Recap White Coat 2021 HD 1080p from UHMed on Vimeo.
During the ceremony on July 14, 2017, the class members also stood to recite a modified version of the Hippocratic Oath, which they will repeat when they have earned their medical degrees. Mr. Brendan Burns, grandson of former Governor John A. Burns (the medical school’s namesake) delivered the “Charge to the Class” in honor of his grandfather and his father, the Honorable James S. Burns, a staunch JABSOM supporter who traditionally performed that role, and who passed away earlier this year.
The Friends of the Medical School presented new awards, named in Judge Burns’ memory, to Dr. Satoru Izutsu, longtime JABSOM MD student admissions director, and Dr. William Haning, Professor of Psychiatry and 1975 JABSOM Alumnus, who has served with distinction in the US Armed Forces and at his alma mater in the Department of Psychiatry, most recently as Director of Medical Student Education.