Jan 13, 2025
Olivia Boudreau

Assumption Officially Welcomes First Physician Assistant Class with White Coat Ceremony 

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Assumption University officially welcomed its first cohort of physician assistant students on Friday, January 3, with a White Coat Ceremony. The first cohort consists of 40 students and is set to graduate in May 2027.  

The director of the PA studies program, Christopher Ferreira, PA-C, opened the ceremony with an explanation of the importance of the white coat in the career of physician assistants.  

“The white coat has a lot of history, and has had many evolutionary changes over the decades,” said Ferreira. “The white coat has served as the preeminent symbol of physicians for over a hundred years. In the 20th century, the white coat continued as the symbol of medical authority and respect, as advance upon advance firmly established the patient-doctor relationship as a beneficial encounter.” 

“The white coat continues to symbolize professionalism, caring, and trust, which we must earn from patients. Many patients now view the white coat as a cloak of compassion and a symbol of the caring and hope they expect to receive from their PA, physician, or NP. You are all receiving your short white coat tonight as you begin your PA training. This will set the tone of professionalism and convey the weight of every responsibility you will have as a student and a future PA in practice,” he continued.  

Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Marc Guerra then welcomed each of the students after an invocation from Fr. Dennis Gallagher, A.A, Vice President for Mission.  

“We gather as a community to confer on you not simply a garment, but a tangible symbol of the education, profession, and life that you have not simply chosen to pursue, but more fundamentally to live,” said Guerra. “Today, you embark on an educational journey that will not only equip you with scientific knowledge and professional skills and techniques but will call on you to express your personal character, not simply follow rules or ethical procedures in your work as teachers, students, and healers. You’ll learn to put theory and practice together as you live a life that embodies the noble virtues of medicine and the healer’s art, wisdom, justice, self-restraint, gravity, generosity, discretion, trustworthiness, and reverence for human life from its beginning to its end.” 

Each of the students in the program were then presented with their short white coats by members of the physician studies faculty, including Wendy Buja, PA-C; Jeffery Giarnese, PA-C; Rebecca Hassel, PA-C; and Robert Kevin Ferguson, M.D.  

After receiving the coats, each member of the class of 2027 took the PA Professional Oath, administered by Buja. The oath includes a pledge to perform the duties of a physician assistant with honesty, dedication, sincerity, and honor.