White Coat Ceremony

One of the fun things about starting dental school is all the Pomp and Circumstance the school tacks on to everything. Isn't all this stuff suppose to be for when you graduate? Dave started orientation on the 31st of July. He'd go at 8am and return around 5pm and was given all sorts of information on the ADA's Code of Ethics, CWRU Student Handbook, Student Health Services, blah, blah, blah. It turned out to be 4 days of excruciatingly boring speeches, ordering really expensive glasses, and "read this form, sign and date it, pass it to the end of your row."

There were things that did break all the monotony. At the end of the first day all the new students got to open several boxes that contained their new tablet pc and its corresponding accessories. Everyone was excited and couldn't wait to actually use them in a couple days. Trying on and ordering scrubs was another exciting (and time-consuming) process. Everyone that knows Dave might be able to recall how excited he was to go to dental school...so that he could were scrubs to school everyday. He only mentioned it about 5 times in every conversation he's had since last December in case anyone of you didn't get to enjoy his excitement.

The final event of the week was the White Coat Ceremony. It was held at the Amasa Stone Chapel on Case's campus. It's a neat building that's been there since the early 20th century and has plagues about old university presidents and students that served in wars. It featured speeches from the Dean of the dental school, a few faculty, and a guest speaker. The new students all sat together on the left side of the chapel, while their families sat on the right side and struggled to stay awake (Mindy included).

After the speeches were over, the first-years went up one-by-one and had white coats placed upon them representing their new station in life: student doctors. Once everyone had their white coat, they all stood and recited a dental professional creed that none of them will ever remember but they sure looked cool doing saying it together in their new white coats. This ended the ceremony and the new students went out to the steps of an adjacent building to have their class picture taken. Here's to the beginning of 4 fun and stress-filled years!