Reciting the pledge
Second-year dental students commemorate transition to patient care during White Coat Ceremony
With an air of excitement similar to that in the Meyerson Symphony Center each May for commencement, second-year dental students cross the stage, one by one, in front of a ballroom packed with family and friends. But instead of graduation regalia and lavender hoods, the students receive crisp white coats slipped over their shoulders.
Each February, the White Coat Ceremony offers Texas A&M University Baylor College of Dentistry second-year students the chance to commemorate their upcoming transition to the clinical phase of dental school education. This year’s Feb. 12 event at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas included remarks from Dr. Lawrence Wolinsky, TAMBCD dean, and Dr. Stephen Griffin, associate dean for clinical affairs.
The Baylor College of Dentistry Alumni Association purchases the coats, and as such, association president Dr. Lee Kavanagh ’02 and president-elect Lauri Inglis, dental hygiene ’02, presented the coats to students.
The event culminates as students recite the Dentist’s Pledge, a reminder of the high standards upheld within their chosen profession.