St. John's News
Third-Year PA Students Receive Their White Coats at Marillac Auditorium Ceremony
October 08, 2008
Eighty-two St. John’s students enrolled in the third year of the
College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Profession’s Physicians
Assistant program received their white coats on October 6 during an
hour-long ceremony in Marillac Auditorium. The ceremony was
attended by College of Pharmacy faculty (including PA Student
Association faculty moderator Jennifer Liantonio), administrators
and family and friends of the students.
A traditional ceremony within the health care professions
(including physician assistant and pharmacy), the white coat
ceremony celebrates students’ entry into the professional years of
study. Those who received the white coats are enrolled in the
didactic, or instructional, portion of the PA program at the
University’s Dr. Andrew J. Bartilucci Center and will continue into
their clinical rotations next year. In accordance with the
program standards, the students have maintained a 3.0 GPA overall
as well as in math and science to progress through the
program.
After an invocation and welcome, Saulius Skeivys, M.D., Medical
Director of the Woodside Family Practice in Queens, addressed the
students. College of Pharmacy Dean Robert J. Mangione, R.Ph., Ed.D,
then offered a few words to the students, after which each student
took the long-anticipated walk across the stage to have a white
coat placed on his/her shoulders by PA Program Director, Niels
Schmidt. After students as a group recited the Physician Assistant
Oath, Director Schmidt offered closing remarks.
College of Pharmacy administrators and faculty were also present
to witness the occasion, as was
The White Coat Ceremony was preceded by PA Student Association’s
annual dinner, the kick-off event for National Physician Assistants
Week, October 6-12.