During UF’s 24th annual Mark S. Gold, M.D. '75, Distinguished Professor and Alumnus White Coat Ceremony on Sunday at the Curtis M. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, 155 members of the medical school class of 2024 received their own bright, freshly pressed white coats, which they will don during their clinical rotations for their final two years of medical school.

In her remarks, College of Medicine Dean Colleen Koch, M.D., M.S., M.B.A., noted that when the medical students put on their white coats, they step into the role of an advocate for their patients, a teammate to colleagues and a lifelong learner.

“Your white coat is a signal to your community that you are an individual who upholds the ideals of honesty, integrity and compassion, and I have full confidence that you will work each day to earn the honor and responsibility of serving patients,” she said. “You will form remarkable bonds on this path and will no doubt make a profound impact on the lives of others.”

The University of Florida Mobile Outreach Clinic received a $100,000 first-place award in the program category from the Florida Blue Foundation at the 2022 Sapphire Awards ceremony May 4 in Orlando.

The clinic received the award in recognition of its impactful programming over the past 11 years that has provided best practice medical care and social service care coordination at no cost to low-income residents who do not have health insurance.

In 2021, the clinic increased access to telehealth, built a “street medicine program” to provide care for the unsheltered homeless, increased the number of community health workers and continued its daily clinic care.

Graduates from the newest class of Gator MDs are about to sign their names to the Hippocratic Oath and join the field of medicine as new doctors. A ceremony in celebration of the students is planned at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts on May 21, marking the end of their medical school careers and the start of new beginnings and opportunities.

The Gator Nation is invited to watch the ceremony virtually on Saturday, May 21 — the event will be livestreamed beginning at 9 a.m.