An eager class of incoming medical students donned their white coats for the first time and kicked off their careers in medicine at the College of Medicine’s annual White Coat Ceremony, held August 7 at the City Avenue Hilton.

The 260 members of the class of 2013 were on hand, along with proud family and friends, for the symbolic event. The students received the white coats or “cloaks of compassion” and recited the Hippocratic Oath for the first time, signifying their passage into the medicine community.

The first White Coat Ceremony took place in 1993 at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University. It was designed to produce a new generation of physicians with a renewed focus on compassion. The concept eventually spread to 90 percent of medical schools nationwide.