Freshmen medical students begin studies Sixty-two new freshman medical students, members of the Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) Class of 2011, began their medical education Monday, Aug. 6, at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences. The students, 38 men and 24 women, range in age from 21 to 31 years, with the average age of 24. They come to medical school with degrees in various fields including biology, zoology, chemistry, clinical laboratory science, psychology, engineering, and even business administration and foreign languages. Medical students' first week is dedicated to orientation, including introduction to the four-year medical education curriculum. Special emphasis is placed on the students' new roles as health care professionals and expectations of them as professionals. On Monday, Aug. 6, under the curriculum which emphasizes "patient-centered learning," they begin to study their first patient, on paper. At the end of each week, typically, they meet with the physician-faculty member and the patient, in person, to discuss the physician's path of thinking concerning diagnosis and treatment and to better understand the patient's perspective and needs. This learning pattern will continue throughout their medical education. Students' orientation concludes with the White Coat Ceremony at 4 p.m. Friday, Aug. 10 in the Reed T. Keller Auditorium at the UND medical school. They will be "cloaked" in white coats, the traditional garment of the physician, which have been donated by the North Dakota Medical Association. They also recite a modern version of the Oath of Hippocrates, an ancient vow to uphold basic professional principles, in the presence of family, friends and the faculty and staff of the school. Each student also receives a book, "On Doctoring," edited by Richard Reynolds and John Stone, donated by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and a lapel pin engraved with the words, "Humanism in Medicine," donated by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation. During the White Coat Ceremony, Robert Sticca, chair and professor of surgery at the UND medical school, will present the keynote address to students, their family and friends, and faculty and staff of the medical school. His talk is titled, "The Price of Greatness is Responsibility." -- School of Medicine and Health Sciences.