BROWNSVILLE The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine welcomed its second cohort yesterday in Brownsville, during a special White Coat Ceremony for its newest 50 students.

Today you will embark on a tremendous journey and arrive at a destination in four years, where you will have earned and are granted the great privilege of all: being called doctor, said Dr. John H. Krouse, the new dean of the School of Medicine and vice president for Health Affairs.

Throughout the ceremony that marks the beginning of the medical students education and careers, Krouse and fellow School of Medicine leaders emphasized the importance of staying humble and showing compassion.

Learn from each other, from nurses, from other healthcare professionals, but most importantly, from your patients, Krouse said. Let them be your teachers, let them guide you and let them show you the way.

Be kind to yourself so that you can be kind to others. Always hold humanity, and humility, as unwavering values that you live by every day.

Dr. Steven A. Lieberman, who served as interim dean of the School of Medicine before Krouse arrived earlier this month, echoed Krouses message on humility.

There are two tools vital to physicians, he said, a compass, and a map that will help guide them through moral dilemmas they will face in their profession. Above all else, he told them, remain humble and treat all patients with respect and compassion.

Apply your talents with the sense of obligation and integrity you would want to be shown, Lieberman said.

After the cloaking, medical student Adrian Barrera, of Rio Grande City, led his fellow medical students in taking the Hippocratic Oath which acknowledges their primary role as caregivers in the presence of their loved ones, school leaders and peers.

White Coat ceremonies serve as a rite of passage for medical students. Families, School of Medicine faculty, local dignitaries and others in attendance at the TSC Arts Center cheered and gave a standing ovation to the students after they received their white coats.

The Arnold P. Gold Foundation started the White Coat Ceremony in 1993 to welcome new medical students to the health care profession. Today, almost all medical schools in the United States, as well as schools for other healthcare professions, perform such ceremonies.

SOME WORDS FROM THE SECOND COHORT

Before the ceremony, medical students said they were excited to start their lifelong dream of becoming doctors.

I really like science and I really like people, so I figured this would be a great way to integrate the things that I love, said DAndrea Dede Ceasar, a Houston resident who earned her undergraduate degree in health science studies at Baylor University. I had a grandfather who died of cancer. Seeing the way his doctors and nurses took care of him really helped reinforced why I wanted to go into medicine.

Ceasar said she chose to attend the UTRGV School of Medicine because of the opportunities it provides medical students to interact with patients earlier in their education than other medical schools.

Stacy Sebastian said she was inspired to pursue medicine while growing up in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood in Houston. Sebastian, who earned her undergraduate degree in environmental health science at Baylor University, said she noticed disparities in access to health care in her community.

There were definitely medical resources that were lacking, especially in healthcare problems like obesity and diabetes that could be very easily controlled, but were not because of healthcare access, Sebastian said.

I have a huge passion to work with the medically underserved and, when I came down here on my interview day, I saw the community, how the (medical) students were really involved and how the community needs the medical school here.

Classes for the School of Medicine Class of 2021 start July 24.

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UTRGV welcomes its School of Medicine Class of 2021 - Valley morning Star