Texas Tech vet school honors first class with White Coat Ceremony Sunday
The Texas Tech University (TTU) School of Veterinary Medicine in Amarillo will honor 62 students this Sunday, March 17 at the Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts, 500 S. Buchanan St. from 1:30 to 3:15 p.m. as they host their first-ever White Coat Ceremony for this school. The event marks when students enter their educational progression from pre-clinical training to delivering veterinary care during their clinical rotations starting in May.
The ceremony symbolizes a sacred rite of passage while conveying the professional responsibilities society expects from veterinarians. During the event, guest speakers including TTU School of Veterinary Medicine dean and professor, Guy H. Loneragan, Amarillo Mayor Cole Stanley, Texas Tech President Lawrence Schovanec, and other school leaders will congratulate the students as they step into the next chapter of their education. Following this, each student will be donned with a white coat.
Dr. John Dascanio, senior associate dean for academic and student affairs / professor of theriogenology at TTU, said that for other veterinary schools, this ceremony is held in their first year whereas others host it in their third. For this location, the students are accepting the ceremony as a part of their third year.
"This ceremony signifies their transition from their preclinical program into their clinical program, with them actually going out from the school and participating in clinical rotations with private practitioners. This is their step into leaving the laboratory and moving into a veterinary hospital to do actual clinical work," Dascanio said.
"During the ceremony, someone who means something to them, their wife, child, veterinarian, someone who is important to them and they have gone through this journey in veterinary medicine, will place the coat on them on stage as a part of the ceremony, which adds an extra layer," Dascanio said.
During the ceremony, each student will also receive a coin including the seal of the vet school on one face and an impression of a windmill on the other, representing "grit, endurance, and the center on community".
A reception for the students and their families will follow the event. Dascanio spoke about what this group of students participating in the White Coat Ceremony will mean for the future of the school and to the area.
"This is a milestone for us; it is an exciting event in the development of our program. We will have the White Coat Ceremony for the first time this year. Next year, the same class will graduate in May of 2025 for the first year at our school. So, this is a milestone to signify how much closer we are to having that first class graduate to serve Texas and beyond," Dascanio said.
For more information about the TTU School of Veterinary Medicine, visit them online at https://www.depts.ttu.edu/vetschool/ .
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: TTU veterinary school's first class to be in White Coat Ceremony
