Pharmacy students celebrate “rite of passage” into doctoral program. PHOTO CREDIT: uri.edu
The University of Rhode Island’s College of Pharmacy annual white coat ceremony is a milestone for pharmacy students, signifying their official entrance into the program and the beginning of their path to a Ph.D.
This year, the event for third-year pharmacy students was held on Friday, Oct. 1.
The ceremony started with a moment of silence for Leah Ribner-Martin, a member of the pharmacy class of 2025 who passed away over the summer. After this memoriam, President Marc Parlange and other pharmacy professionals addressed the students.
“I’m delighted to be here,” Parlange said. “The white coat ceremony is a special passage to your journey at URI and beyond. It’s also a symbol of dedication to patient care.”
Parlange continued by saying that he knows URI Pharmacy students will do amazing in the future due to the staff of highly trained professionals that will train them to be the future of healthcare.
The white coat ceremony is a “rite of passage” for all students wishing to have a pharmacy degree from URI, according to the Dean of the College of Pharmacy Paul Larrat.
“The students that receive their white coats have been in school for two years already,” Larrat said. “This is them officially coming into the College of Pharmacy. They’re going to start taking pharmacy classes this semester rather than just classes like biology and chemistry.”
According to Larrat, pharmacy students know each other through some core classes. However, the white coat ceremony is the first time that their entire graduating class is together.
Most pharmacy majors are on a six-year track to graduate from the University, according to him. In their sixth year, they do what is called “experimental education” where students work and shadow pharmacists in hospitals, doctors’ offices and community places.
“Once they graduate from URI, they take their pharmacy boards, which is an exam all pharmacists have to take to be certified,” Larrat said.
Larrat said that in recent years, some URI Pharmacy graduates have gone on to postdoctoral residencies, where students will learn how to do a specific kind of pharmacy, such as oncology or emergency medicine.
“It’s a very competitive national program that about half of our students get into,” Larrat said. “They go on to do that, and they get paid for it, which is nice, but then they get that extra training.”
Alyssa Cole, a current pharmacy student set to graduate in 2025, said that the white coat ceremony was one of her favorite and most rewarding memories at URI so far.
“Receiving my white coat was unlike any ceremony I’d experienced before,” Cole said. “I felt like I was at a graduation, when in reality it marked the beginning of my professional journey.”
Cole said that the most special part of the ceremony was being surrounded by her family, friends and fellow classmates.
“Walking across the stage in front of family and friends, reciting the pharmacist’s oath and hearing advice from faculty and students made me so excited for what the rest of my time in the pharmacy program has to offer,” Cole said.
Cole said that she is looking forward to taking pharmacy classes and continuing her education at URI.
“I’m so proud of how far myself and my fellow classmates have come,” Cole said. “The white coat ceremony reminded me that there’s so much more ahead of us.”