White Coat Ceremony

White Coat Ceremony 2019

On Tuesday, September 17, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai welcomed 140 first-year students to the Class of 2023 during its twenty-second annual White Coat Ceremony. The incoming class created their own Student Oath, which reflects the School’s core mission of advocacy, humanism, and excellence in patient care. Among the commitments, the Class of 2023 promised: to innovate collaboratively; to push the bounds of medicine; to dismantle personal and systemic biases to improve communities and patient care; and to hold themselves accountable in their future practice.

Since 2018, the Icahn School of Medicine has dedicated the White Coat Ceremony’s Keynote Speaker presentation to the late Hans Popper, MD, PhD—a world-renowned physician and academic leader who was President and Dean Emeritus of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. This year, the School bestowed that honor to alumna Zara Cooper, MD, MSc, FACS, MSSM ’00, Kessler Director of the Center for Surgery and Public Health, Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Dr. Cooper addressed the Class of 2023, discussing the importance of always acting in the best interest of their future patients and the inextricable link between the “costume” of the white coat and the person inside. Her words also had a resounding effect as she focused on the idea of belonging. She encouraged the class to ward off the “impostor syndrome” and stay the course in medicine. “Each and every one of you belongs here, and we need you,” she said. “We need you because we need people to give us new perspectives, new voices, to challenge us, to make us better, to hold us accountable to our patients and their communities and to the society that entrusts us with among the highest of callings: to heal, to alleviate suffering, and to teach.”

In similar vein, Kenneth L. Davis, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer, Mount Sinai Health System, spoke candidly to the incoming class about today’s political and social climate, which threatens Mount Sinai’s core values of providing equitable health care for all, including immigrant and low-income families. In a clarion call for action, Dr. Davis gave the class a charge of responsibility: “Here is what I want you committed to when you leave this room,” he said. “We must defend our ability to be health care providers for all. We must be ready to effectively deliver care to all our patients, no matter what the obstacles may be, and encourage them to obtain care.”

In his opening remarks, Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and President for Academic Affairs, Mount Sinai Health System, inspired the class to dream big and “let their imagination run wild” when seeking solutions to challenging health care problems.  “What we need is a group of dreamers to rise against the tide of history and believe it is possible to succeed where generations past have not,” he said. “You have the ability to achieve greatness and ease the suffering of our communities.”

The Class of 2023 was selected from a pool of 5,150 applicants, more than 760 of whom were interviewed. The incoming students, whose ages range from 20 to 39 represent diverse backgrounds and experiences: 20 percent identify as underrepresented in medicine (URM); 52 percent are women; and they are alumni of 58 college institutions, with majors in science, the humanities, and the arts. In addition, 34 percent of the class are beneficiaries of the School’s recently  launched Enhanced Scholarship Initiative (ESI)—an institutional scholarship program that allows qualifying entering and current ISMMS students to graduate with a maximum debt of $75,000.