Nearly 175 incoming medical students donned white coats at the annual White Coat Ceremony this summer to mark the start of their medical education at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
Each member of the class of 2030 arrived by a different path shaped by unique experiences that led them to pursue a career in medicine.
Curtis Liu of Palos Verdes was planning to enter the world of mathematical academia until a good friend unexpectedly passed away from a medical condition in his sleep in high school.
“Ever since then, I thought I really wanted to do something that can give something back to the community,” said Liu, who is now pursuing a career in ophthalmology.
Tammara Davis of South LA had already served in the U.S. military and was raising five children with her husband — also a veteran — by the time she decided to go to medical school. She said she chose the David Geffen School of Medicine because of its accepting culture that will allow her to thrive.
“I think there is a space for Black women and I think we need to be advocated for and listened to. I wanted to create that space for women that look just like me,” said Davis, who is looking to specialize in anesthesiology.
Ahmed Alsoudi of Wichita, Kansas, had already seen the impact that medicine could have firsthand. A year earlier, he had volunteered to work at the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan which is the world’s largest camp for Syrian refugees who fled the civil war. The son of Syrian immigrants who emigrated to the U.S., Alsoudi said he would like to give back and eventually teach others in Syria to provide medical care.
“I always wanted to do my part and try to make it available in my country,” Alsoudi said. “We’ve immigrated here and I’ve enjoyed the freedoms and everything of value that has been offered to me. So, I want to give back to this community and, at some point, to go back to Syria to do my part as well.”
Gathered in Royce Hall at UCLA with friends, family and loved ones cheering them on, the DGSOM class of 2030 were each robed in their white coat and recited the UCLA Medical Oath.
Dr. Kymora Scotland, assistant professor of urology at UCLA Health, was the keynote speaker and imparted some words of wisdom to the incoming class. Scotland said the next four to eight years of medical school will ask much of them, and that there will be times when they will feel like they have an impossible amount to learn.
Scotland called on the incoming class to think of the people in their lives who supported them along the way to medical school. She called on the class to continue to allow themselves to ask for help when they begin to struggle and to not try to go it alone.
“Medicine is not merely a job to complete. At its best, it is a passion expressed through service; a decision — one made again and again — to place your knowledge and your effort at the service of another person,” Scotland said to the class. “Passion, however, is not the same as endless self-sacrifice. You cannot care well for others by pretending you have no needs of your own.
Scotland also provided the students with a more personal message: “Protect your health. Keep people in your life who know you without the white coat. Preserve something that brings you joy and has nothing to do with medicine.”
