Press Release

August 21, 2006
Contact: Patricia M. Hansen
(732) 235-6307
hansenmp@umdnj.edu

156 Students Participate in White Coat Ceremony at
UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

NEW BRUNSWICK — The UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School hosted the 2006 White Coat ceremony on August 11 in the Courtyard of Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick. Peter S. Amenta, MD, PhD, interim dean of UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS) opened the ceremony joined by Bruce C. Vladeck, PhD, interim president of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. The keynote speaker was Jeffrey Levine, MD, MPH, associate professor in the Departments of Family Medicine and Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. He is the Director of Women's Health Programs in the Department of Family Medicine.

The White Coat Ceremony was the first event celebrated by the new RWJMS class of 20010. Students began the ceremony in street clothes and as they donned their white coats, they symbolically transformed into a uniform team. The team then took its first step into the medical community together, by reading the Hippocratic Oath in unison. The class of 2010 is the largest class in the history of the school with 156 students.

The White Coat Ceremony, an initiative of The Arnold P. Gold Foundation for Humanism in Medicine, was piloted at RWJMS in 1994. The ceremony initiated by the Gold Foundation has succeeded and evolved under the leadership of Susan Rosenthal, MMS ’ 75, MD, clinical associate professor of pediatrics and assistant dean for student affairs.

Class of 2010 UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
              
Atlantic County
Mohammad Chaudhry
Laura Longo

Bergen County
Linda Bahouth
Bryan Burke
Abigail Cooper
Dorian Infantino
Francesca Khani
Joseph Largi
Sarah Lupu
Payal Parikh
Malay Rao
Fathima Sahulhameed
David Schick
Anjali Sheth
Jane So
Erika Wasenda
Waikeong Wong
John Young

Burlington County
Heather Graver
Steven Neuman
Stephanie Skuby
Michael Vosbikian

Camden County
Shannon Agner
Stephanie Chan
Janet Vadaparampil

Cape May County
Meghan Prin

Essex County
Jessica Crystal
Juliet Lwanga
Alan Marcus
Kimberly Trabka

Gloucester County
Lawrence Han

Hudson County
Bradford Chu
Mina Labib
Raymond Mirasol
Rachael Questelles
Dillenia Reyes
Miaoying Zhang

Hunterdon County
Adam Befeler
Christina Cheng
Julianne Pupa
Xiaolin Zhang

Mercer County
Ami Naik
Afua Nyanin
Jay Oza
Rachel Valencia

Middlesex County
Priya Agarwala
Stuti Ahlawat
Marguerite Balasta
Eleanor Cheung
Natalie Danna
Julia Dykhouse
Lashelle Gardner
Alison Grazioli
Hilary Grosso
Abha Gupta
Julia Ham
Roland Hamilton
Omar Hasan
William Hoffman
Nancy Ibrahim
Ashleigh Igbokwe
Aarti Krishnan
Sebastian Lesniak
Swathi Namburi
Urania Ng
Meir Olcha
Chiti Parikh
Akshar Patel
James Prister
Hemesh Rama
Kavitha Ramaswamy
Richard Ro
Sherif Saad
Danielle Salovich
Kimberly Salwitz
Cyrus Sebastian
Mengmeng Shen
Maziar Shirazi
Colette Ulanmo
Olga Wiley
Elina Zaretsky
Lily Zou

Monmouth County
Justin Alpert
Alexander King
Jonathan Kwong
Erwin Moy
Dupal Patel
Michael Prasto
Matthew Saybolt
Jeffrey Schlogl
Anar Shah

Morris County
Travis Gehringer
Jeffrey Mino
Lauren Pallone
Margarita Sergonis
Christopher Tarassoff

Ocean County
James Crismale
Sarah Sherwood
Melissa Weidner

Out of State
Uschi Auguste
Desmond Brown
Sarah Connolly
Michael DiGiacomo
Carmine Di Martino
Brian Fernholz
Joseph Flynn
Eileen Hwang
Grace Kim
Dallas Kingsbury
Elena Lebduska
George Liao
Renee Lewis
Caitlin Martin
Jennifer Martini
Thomas McCann
Jose Montes-Rivera
Aliza Olive
Olubukola Olla
Damara Ortiz
Corinna Panlilio
Shanon Peter
Andrew Rosenbaum
David Sinopoli
Edith Ubannwa
Jonathan Yun

Passaic County
Travis Dayon
Mukundha Maneyapanda
Anjali Masand

Salem County
Jillian Franzen

Somerset County
Scott Alter
Christopher Bryczkowski
Yehchung Chang
Sarah Driscoll
Peter Harris
Niren Jasutkar
Noreen Kelly
Marie Kim
Heather Mak
Jessica Merkel-Keller
Adam Nabatian
Rula Nassar
Raj Parekh
Haroon Rahimi
Brett Smith

Sussex County
Matthew Butler
Robert Lorenzo
John McGinniss

Union County
David Chen
Nora Doty
Oliver Eng
Aaron Klinger
Rosebel Monteiro
Nicole Montgomery
Emily Porch
Alan Sing

UMDNJ is the nation’s largest free-standing public health sciences university with more than 5,500 students attending the state's three medical schools, its only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and a school of public health on five campuses. Annually, there are more than two million patient visits at UMDNJ facilities and faculty at campuses in Newark, New Brunswick/Piscataway, Scotch Plains, Camden and Stratford. UMDNJ operates University Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, a mental health and addiction services network.