Aspiring Health Care Professionals Receive White Coats

A new cohort of 80 aspiring health professionals enrolled in Columbia University’s Summer Health Professions Education Program donned white coats during a ceremony on June 28 meant to symbolically welcome them as they begin their journeys as healthcare providers. The program’s goal is to strengthen the academic proficiency and career development of students from communities underrepresented in the health professions and prepare them for successful application and matriculation to health professions schools.

Students participating in the program at Columbia are enrolled in one of four tracks — dental, medical, nursing, or physical therapy. Twenty students in the 2023 cohort have chosen the predental track. Columbia is one of 12 schools that participate in the program, which is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and is free to participants.

Students who participate in SHPEP deepen their understanding of the basic sciences and quantitative topics. They participate in small-group clinical rotations and full-group clinician seminars and are coached on developing study skills and practicing methods of individual and group learning. Students who complete the program are three times more likely to apply to dental school when they complete their undergraduate studies and two times more likely to be accepted.

Yussra Mahmud, a member of the College of Dental Medicine’s class of 2026 and an alumna of SHPEP who is serving as the program’s administrative assistant this year, says her SHPEP summer was pivotal. “My academic and career trajectory before and after SHPEP were very different,” she said. “It really solidified my passion for dentistry. And it gave me real insight into what it means to be a competitive applicant.” The program is staffed by facilitators all of whom have participated in it and this summer, for the first time, all of the facilitators are CDM students.

Trevon Bailey, also a member of CDM’s class of 2026, said that he recalls participating in the SHPEP white coat ceremony as a turning point. “As an alum of this program, it brings me great joy and hope for the profession,” he said as he watched the new class of future dentists, doctors, nurses, and physical therapists file into the auditorium for the ceremony.

Family and friends of the students were able to attend the ceremony both in person and virtually.

Dr. George Jenkins, assistant professor of dental medicine at CUMC and associate dean for access, equity, and inclusion at CDM, who oversees the pre-dental program, listed seven characteristics that he said were fundamental to the ethical practice of medicine: accountability, justice, nonmaleficence, autonomy, beneficence, fidelity, and veracity. “See the humanity in each other and you will never find yourself on the wrong side of these principles,” he said.