HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER WELCOMES FUTURE MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS

FORT WORTH, Texas -- The University of North Texas Health Science Center faculty will welcome and initiate incoming health professions students, including the first class of the newly approved School of Public Health. The annual White Coat and Convocation Ceremony takes place at 4 p.m. August 6 at the Will Rogers Auditorium at the Amon Carter Jr. Exhibit Hall in Fort Worth, led by Dr. David M. Richards, health science center president.

The White Coat Ceremony is a rite of passage for students entering the academic health community, and by being literally "coated" for the first time with a white coat, signifies their pending entry into professional ranks. The UNT Health Science Center’s White Coat ritual includes 115 incoming students of the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine, 36 students at the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, 19 new students in the Physician Assistant Studies Program and 48 in the School of Public Health.

Dr. Samuel T. Coleridge, chairman of family medicine at the health science center, will welcome the incoming students with the presentation of the keynote address.

Supporters of the White Coat and Convocation ceremony include the Texas Osteopathic Medical Association, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Society for Experimental Biology in Medicine, and the Arnold P. Gold Foundation.