Offset by a bright red shirt, Malik Richardson’s crisp, medical white coat and beaming smile stood out in a sea of FSU College of Medicine classmates, families and friends who gathered around the Westcott Fountain to celebrate Friday’s White Coat Ceremony.
Asked to describe the meaning and emotions of the White Coat Ceremony – a celebration of the successful completion of the first semester of medical school where medical students receive their first white coats – Richardson didn’t hesitate.
“It feels amazing,” said Richardson, who was selected by his classmates as the M.D. Class of 2029 president. “As the president, my responsibility here is service, so I serve all my classmates and, in the future, God willing, as a physician, I will serve my patients as well.
“This white coat not only represents the love and compassion I have for all the patients that I interact with, but it truly is the embodiment of what it means to be a competent physician. Hopefully, I will embody an exemplary physician.”
Even as its journey is just beginning, the Class of 2029 has special significance. It is the 25th College of Medicine cohort to begin the four-year Doctor of Medicine curriculum, which corresponds with this year’s 25th anniversary of the college’s creation.
To date, the college has produced 2,066 physicians, more than 1,100 of whom have completed residency and are in practice. Those numbers will exceed 2,500 and 1,500 by the time Richardson and his classmates graduate in May of 2029.
Selected from 6,700 applicants, the 120-member class was culled from 190 who received offers following 263 individual interviews. Its make-up, while unique, remains rooted in the college’s mission-driven principles.
▪ The College of Medicine’s featured pathway programs are represented by eight members from the Bridge to Clinical Medicine master’s program, and eight others who matriculated through the undergraduate Interdisciplinary Medical Sciences program.
▪ They are represented by students from 17 different undergrad majors, featuring traditional pre-med tracks (biology, biomedical sciences, neuroscience, microbiology and biochemistry) as well academically diverse majors that include history, anthropology, music, economics, nursing, environmental science, computer science and political science.
▪ The class includes 26 first-generation college students and 52 non-traditional members; those who did not matriculate directly from an undergraduate education.
▪ In all, 118 of the 120 were either raised in Florida or attended a state university. They hail from 35 Florida counties, and yet speak 22 different languages.
▪ Collectively, they entered medical school with more than 67,000 cumulative hours of research experience and 71,000 cumulative hours in medical or non-medical service to communities.
“Wherever you come from, tonight’s ceremony will be something you will remember for the rest of your life,” FSU College of Medicine Dean Alma Littles, M.D., said in her opening remarks. “You’ll be transformed by what it means to don the white coat, and you will gain new appreciation for the responsibility that goes along with it.
“You have had the opportunity this summer to bond with your classmates and to grow closer in your shared pursuit. You will lean on each other a lot in the years to come, and tonight I hope you will look around at your classmates and feel the shared sense of pride in what this ceremony represents.”
The evening ceremony at the Ruby Diamond Concert Hall is the celebration of the medical students’ completion of the rigorous first semester of medical school, which began in late May. Not coincidentally, it also includes the induction of select fourth-year medical students into the Chapman Chapter of the Gold Humanism Honor Society.
GHHS members are chosen by peers and faculty for best demonstrating humanism in their care for patients through compassion, respect, empathy, integrity and clinical excellence. They are role models for the future physicians who are just beginning their medical education.
Sixteen members of the M.D. Class of 2026 were selected for GHHS induction, with 11 participating in the pinning ceremony that preceded the featured event. One of those inducted, Katelyn Cornelius, shared an important message with those soon-to-be-coated first-year students seated in the audience.
“As I reflect on medical school, I’ve realized that the most impactful lessons often don’t come from textbooks or lectures,” said Cornelius, who anecdotally shared a few of her own clinical training experiences for illustration. “They come from people, patients, classmates and mentors who teach us compassion, vulnerability and trust.”
Dean Littles followed with the introduction of alumnus Marlisha Edwards, M.D. as the keynote speaker:
“To say that Dr. Edwards is the personification of all the good things FSU has to offer and is the embodiment of its mission, vision and values, is an understatement.”
A College of Medicine graduate, Dr. Edwards practices family medicine in Tallahassee with the Southern Medical Group/TMH Physician Partners, instructs third-year medical students as a member of the college’s clerkship faculty and is president of SMG’s executive committee.
Her path to becoming a leader in the medical profession mirrors the vision the College of Medicine’s founders had when developing multiple programs that would encourage and support students who would address Florida’s shortage of primary care physicians. As an FSU undergraduate, she served as a SSTRIDE mentor, was active in the Multicultural Associations of Pre-Health Students, and following graduation, enrolled in FSU’s then post-baccalaureate Bridge program to earn a seat in the M.D. Class of 2011.
She was selected for induction to both the Gold Humanism and Alpha Omega Alpha honor societies and received the college’s Outstanding Graduate in Family Medicine Award.
Outgoing and engaging, Dr. Edwards carried the audience through the origin of the white coat ceremony, interjected with a handful of stories tinged with humor. She brought her message to a close on a more serious note.
“There was young woman caring for her father at his bedside after he had been in the ICU for three weeks. She noticed that her father’s mental status had changed from the day prior. The ICU doctors were notified, and they assured her that her father was fine, but she felt uneasy. After a few hours, she took his temperature. Alarmed at the 103-degree fever, she was certain that he had bacterial meningitis. Bacterial meningitis that came from a drain in his brain. It was placed three weeks prior to drain blood. Blood that collected after an unknown brain aneurysm caused pressure. Pressure that caused bleeding from a nearby jumble of abnormal blood vessels called an arteriovenous malformation, or AVM. An AVM that led to a subarachnoid hemorrhage. A subarachnoid hemorrhage that caused a thunderclap headache. A thunderclap headache that resulted in a 911 call. A 911 call that was placed by the daughter. The daughter that was in town to care for her father after a knee replacement. The daughter that trained at the FSU College of Medicine. The daughter that is me.
“One year ago, this frightening event happened, and I was grateful for the medical knowledge that prepared me to help care for my father who is alive and well today.
“So, I implore you all: Strive to new heights. Study smart. Study hard. Study as if the life of a loved one depends on it, because that could very well be the case. Make us proud. Put on that white coat. Dress the part.”