The 43 members of the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine‘s Class of 2022 received their white coats during the annual White Coat Ceremony on Oct. 19.
While most medical schools across the country hold white coat ceremonies, which are intended to ensure students understand the expectations and responsibilities of the profession, many hold their ceremonies on the first day of class or within the first week.
The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine wanted to ensure the ceremony was not just a photo op, but that the white coat must be earned. So the ceremony is held after the first block of study, which includes a special curriculum called “Into Your White Coat” to prepare them for the ceremony.
For the first time, this year’s white coats were donated. Richard and Sarah Wardrop are Virginia Tech alumni. Richard Wardrop ’94) earned an M.D. and Ph.D. from Ohio State and served as a founding faculty member of the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine for three years before joining the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. Sarah Wardrop ’93 participated as an interviewer for prospective VTCSOM students in the medical school’s Multiple Mini Interview process during their time in Roanoke, Virginia.
The Wardrops said, “We are very humbled to be able to support VTC. As alumni who attended Virginia Tech before there was even a dream of a medical school, we are thrilled to have participated in the foundation of the school during our time in Roanoke from 2007 to 2010. Having participated in the White Coat Ceremony as a faculty member and mentor at UNC and having also sponsored the White Coat Ceremony at Ohio State, we feel strongly about welcoming medical students into this honorable and most human of professions. The White Coat Ceremony truly represents the beginning of the rest of your professional life.”