On Thursday, January 11, 13 students received their ceremonial white coat as part of the CC Biomedical Innovations, the junior level course for the Project Lead The Way Biomedical track. The coats were administered by PLTW BioMed teacher Jamie Jobe, and Positive School principal Jon Fitzgerald.
Those who received their white coats swore an oath to the medical sciences and to themselves as students. “The white coat is like this moment of, you’ve made it so far within your education, but you have a lot to learn,” Jobe said.
To Jobe, the junior year is the perfect year to receive their white coats. “It’s the students who made it through two and a half years of the program. They’re clearly dedicated to the program, but they are still learning a lot,” Jobe said.
The white coat ceremony has been a yearly tradition for 10 years this year. Though the juniors’ fun isn’t done, as the senior level class for the course is a capstone class. “We do the senior capstone at the end of the year where the students get to present like the seniors get to present their big projects. I always love those kinds of events, like seeing the kids really get excited about the stuff,” Jobe said.
Additionally, The students do often use their white coats. “They can always bring them back to class and when we do labs, they want to wear them. They take them off into college with them,” Jobe said.
The Biomedical White Coat ceremony does act as a stepping stone to the students. “You’re doing great. You still got a lot to go,” Jobe said.
