Class of 2027 Honored at White Coat Celebration

FORT WORTH – Sixty new medical students received their white coats, signifying the beginning of their medical education journey at the Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine at Texas Christian University.

“We’re welcoming our fifth class of future physicians,” said Stuart D. Flynn, M.D., the Founding Dean of the Burnett School of Medicine at TCU. “This new class of Empathetic Scholars® embraces our school’s unique perspective on empathy and communication combined with deep medical knowledge, which will ultimately lead to better patient care and better health outcomes.”

The students received their white coats at TCU’s Legends Club at Amon G. Carter Stadium. Each year, white coat ceremonies are held by medical schools all across the U.S. and medical students receive their short white coats. It signifies the beginning of their journey to achieve the long white coat, when they are physicians, according to the American Medical Association.

“Congratulations! This is an incredible day for the families,” said TCU Chancellor Victor Boschini Jr. at the event. “To all of the medical students, work really hard to be colleagues not competitors because you are all brilliant. ”

The Burnett School of Medicine adds their own twist to the celebration by having family members gather around each medical student to help them put on their white coat.

First-year medical student Mebeli Becerra represented the class at the event. “The white coat is a symbol of healing for heatlh care professionals,” she said. “As for my fellow medical students and I, it demonstrates our commitment to becoming Empathetic Scholars®.”

More than 6,300 applied to be one of 60 students selected for the class of 2027. The first-year medical students represent 15 states and seven countries. Fifteen students come from Texas and 12 students graduated from TCU. Forty percent of the class self-identifies with one or more of the three school defined diversity domains: race/ethnicity, LGBTQ, or socio-economic limitation.

The Burnett School of Medicine graduated its first class of medical students in May and received full accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) in June. The school’s innovative curriculum will prepare students to be compassionate physicians, excellent caregivers and prepared to meet the challenges of the rapid advances in medicine.

The medical school’s goal is to transform medical education by having a unique curriculum that incorporates communications training throughout the curriculum. Students are partnered with patients and physicians from their first day in a Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship model. Students also benefit from world-class simulation and technology, using the Microsoft HoloLens® and HoloAnatomy® mixed reality learning experience.

They are also pushed to be life-long learners adept of critical inquiry and medical information literacy through their Scholarly Pursuit & Thesis (SPT) a four-year research project that is required to be completed upon graduation.

“We put our students at the forefront of medical innovation and make them comfortable with how patient care will be delivered in the future,” Dean Flynn said. “Our medical students will have a unique skillset that can adapt to new medical advances while treating patients and their families with compassion, empathy and respect.”