On May 30, 2025, 59 second-year medical students from the Gilbert and Rose-Marie Chagoury School of Medicine took a significant step in their education as they donned white coats and received stethoscopes, marking their progression from pre-clinical studies to hands-on clinical practice and the growing responsibilities that come with it.

Held on LAU’s Byblos campus, the ceremony brought together proud families, friends, and the LAU community to celebrate this important rite of passage, officially welcoming the students into the clinical phase of their medical training and acknowledging both the responsibility they are assuming and the trust society places in them.

The event was attended by LAU President Chaouki T. Abdallah, university leadership, school deans, medical officers from the LAU medical centers, and LAU faculty and staff.

While the White Coat Ceremony is an annual tradition, this year’s gathering carried a deeper emotional meaning. Following a challenging period marked by political instability, economic hardship, and ongoing regional conflict, it served as a testament to the students’ resilience and perseverance.

“Despite breathtaking advances in science and technology, medicine remains deeply human at its core,” said Dr. Abdallah. While innovations such as AI, precision medicine, and genomics continue to transform healthcare, he reminded students that “what patients seek is not just an answer, but understanding, not just a diagnosis, but dignity.” He emphasized that a physician’s true strength lies not in machines or data, but in empathy, presence, and the ability to listen.

The school’s Dean Sola Aoun Bahous echoed this message, telling students, “Today, as you wear white, you are stepping into a legacy of hope.” She highlighted that this moment is more than a shift in training—it is a personal and ethical commitment to the art of healing.

Keynote speaker and alumna Amanda Abi Doumet (MD ’19), now an internal medicine resident at the University of Connecticut, offered heartfelt encouragement to the class. “The best physicians aren’t just the smartest. They’re the ones who care the most,” she said, underscoring the power of compassion in medicine.

Reflecting on her own experience, she recalled sitting in the audience years ago, uncertain of what lay ahead. “You won’t always feel ready,” she told the students, “but every great doctor started where you are: with a clean white coat, a full brain, and a heart unsure if it was strong enough for what’s ahead. But it is. And you are.”

Following the ceremonial march alongside their faculty, all 59 students, now cloaked in white, stood together and solemnly pledged to uphold the principles and responsibilities entrusted to them as class representative Mohamad El Atat delivered the class oath.

With families, faculty, and the LAU community looking on, the moment affirmed their readiness to face the challenges ahead and their collective commitment to the values at the heart of the medical profession.