Senior Nicole Harris dons her white lab coat at the ceremony.

CLEVELAND -- Case Western Reserve University's School of Dentistry held its first-ever White Coat Ceremony Thursday, September 7 at Ford Auditorium in the Allen Memorial Library. The event recognized members of the junior and senior classes in their new status as caregivers in the dental school clinic. The school plans to make it an annual event that, in future years, will welcome members of the junior class as they enter the intensive clinical phase of their education.

Friends, family members and other well-wishers were on hand for the solemn but happy occasion. In addition to welcoming remarks by Dean Jerold Goldberg, they heard a keynote address by James Fanno, a 1966 alumnus of the orthodontics program and an orthodontist in Canton. After the ceremony, students gathered for a group photo on the Allen Library steps, then attended a reception at Thwing Center.

Dental school students gather on the Allen Library steps for a group picture.

Photos by Judith Bailey

David Johns, a junior, celebrates with wife Tawny and their four-year-old twins Aimee and Katie.