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Surrounded by family, faculty and classmates, the MD Class of 2029 took their first steps as future physicians during this year’s White Coat Ceremony on Aug. 15. As each student’s name was called, department chairs helped them don their white coats for the first time on stage at Harrison Opera House.

“Today’s ceremony affirms the vision and the core values we hold dearly in medicine: professionalism, integrity, compassion, empathy and dedication,” said Alfred Abuhamad, MD, executive vice president for Health Sciences and dean of Eastern Virginia Medical School at ���Ϲ�. “This ceremony reinforces the reasons all physicians, including myself, answered our professional calling — to care for those less fortunate, to comfort the sick and to make a difference in the lives of those we serve. It is a great privilege and joy to be a physician.”

The event’s keynote speaker, Jonathan Byrne, MD (M.S. '06, MD '10, Emergency Medicine Residency '13), shared not only his knowledge as a physician, but what he learned as a graduate of the EVMS MD Class of 2010.

“How you train here, that dedication and sacrifice, will shape the kind of physician you are not just four years from now — but 40 years from now,” said Dr. Byrne, assistant professor of Emergency Medicine. “Your patients are going to trust that you have put in the work and that trust is powerful. I challenge you to earn it during your time here.”

More than 7,700 people applied to be in the MD Class of 2029, but only 151 were chosen. Among those students, about half are from Virginia, including 19 from Hampton Roads.

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