August 20, 2021
AUBURN, Alabama – The Harrison School of Pharmacy’s Class of 2025 joined the Auburn Family on Saturday, August 14 as friends and family joined the incoming student pharmacists at the 2021 White Coat Ceremony at the Jay and Susie Gogue Performing Arts Center.
The White Coat Ceremony, one of the most anticipated milestones in a pharmacist’s path, signified the end of orientation week and the beginning of the four-year journey of pharmacy school. The presentation of their own white coats, used to recognize health care professionals throughout the world, represents the next crucial stage of their education in which they will actively engage with patients and other professionals.
The Harrison School of Pharmacy is thankful to McKesson, a leading health care company for wholesale medical supplies and equipment, pharmaceutical distribution and health care technology solutions, for its support of the White Coat Ceremony. Additionally, the School would like to thank individual coat sponsors for showing their support of pharmacy’s next generation.
At the Harrison School of Pharmacy, faculty members view student pharmacists as junior colleagues in the profession of pharmacy. Thus, the presentation of the white coat symbolizes their formal induction into the profession of pharmacy. While the students are still trainees, the event symbolizes their entry into the profession of pharmacy.
“The White Coat Ceremony is especially meaningful. It is a symbolic event in which members of the Class of 2025 are inducted into our profession as student pharmacists and junior colleagues,” said Dr. Richard Hansen, dean of the Harrison School of Pharmacy. “Today, they begin a journey that will culminate in their becoming health care professionals, full-fledged pharmacy colleagues and caregivers to their patients.”
The students arrived on Monday, August 9 and spent the week in orientation. Each day of orientation carried with it a central theme, such as teamwork, communication, advocacy, self-assessment, and mentoring. Students learned how each of these themes applied to their role as a pharmacist and their relationship with their patients.
The Class of 2025 is made up of 133 students with 115 on the Auburn campus and 18 on the Mobile campus. The group brings a diverse background to HSOP as the class is made up of students from 15 different states, including Alabama, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah and Virginia; Puerto Rico; and three foreign countries (Colombia, Senegal and South Korea).
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Auburn University’s Harrison School of Pharmacy is ranked among the top 25 percent of all pharmacy schools in the United States, according to U.S. News & World Report. Fully accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), the School offers doctoral degrees in pharmacy (Pharm.D.) and pharmaceutical sciences (Ph.D.) while also offering a master’s in pharmaceutical sciences. The School's commitment to world-class scholarship and interdisciplinary research speaks to Auburn's overarching Carnegie R1 designation that places Auburn among the top 100 doctoral research universities in the nation. For more information about the School, please call 334.844.8348 or visit http://pharmacy.auburn.edu.