White Coat Ceremony for the Larner Medical Class of 2030

Friday, October 9, 1:00 p.m., Ira Allen Chapel, University of Vermont Campus

Tickets—requested in advance by members of the Class of 2030—are required for all guests to attend the White Coat Ceremony. The ceremony begins promptly at 1:00 p.m.; chapel doors open for guests at 12:15 p.m. The event will be livestreamed for family and friends who are unable to attend. A professional photographer will take photos of the event; a photo gallery will be available after the ceremony.

After the ceremony, students and their guests are invited to the Larner College of Medicine for an Open House with light refreshments. The Clinical Simulation Lab will host tours, the Dana Health Sciences Library will be open for guests to visit, and other areas throughout the college will welcome visitors. Guests are encouraged to attend the Open House to see where their students will be spending the early years of their medical school education.

The White Coat Ceremony, a signature tradition in nearly all U.S. medical schools, is a formal rite of passage for new medical students, marking their transition from student to physician-in-training. A ritual at U.S. medical schools for more than a quarter of a century, this event officially welcomes students to the medical profession, emphasizing their new responsibility as they don the traditional physician’s white coat for the first time. It’s both a tradition and a statement—a formal welcome into the profession, a pledge to uphold its highest values, and a unifying moment for a new class of future physicians.