First Division White Coat Ceremony

The Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy hosted an inaugural White Coat Ceremony at the Pappas Quad on USC’s Health Sciences Campus on August 26th.

By Kimberly Perring

Before faculty, administrators, family, and friends, more than 200 occupational therapy graduate students donned their new white coats, a traditional symbol of professional responsibility in health care.

In her remarks to the students, USC Associate Dean and Division Chair Florence Clark described the white coat as a “symbol for an emergence into professional life, for the sacred contracts you will hold with your clients, and for the requirements of ethical practice.” Clark asked students to “fulfill the ethical obligations placed upon you, live up to your potential as excellent clinicians, and treat with the heart and soul of a healer.”

At the division‘s August 26th White Coat Ceremony, matriculating students stand and recite the ‘Oath of an Occupational Therapist’ in the Harry and Celesta Pappas Quad on the USC Health Sciences Campus | Photo by Kimberly Kelton/USC OSOT

Because the Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy is housed within the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC, Ostrow Dean Avishai Sadan offered the keynote address. He congratulated the students and challenged them to fulfill the expectations that come with being an occupational therapist at USC. Together, the student body recited the Oath of an Occupational Therapist, a pledge that includes a commitment to “model and foster leadership, and facilitate spiritual, personal, and professional growth in myself, my profession, and in others.”