Jonesboro, AR – Contributed – New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine at Arkansas State University (NYITCOM at A-State) welcomed 121 new future doctors to Northeast Arkansas Saturday as the medical school held its annual White Coat Ceremony at A-State’s Fowler Center.

The Class of 2030 is the 11th class on NYITCOM’s Arkansas campus. The class represents 23 different states, including 26 new medical students from Arkansas.

During Saturday’s ceremony, NYITCOM at A-State Dean Dr. Shane Speights emphasized the important role the incoming class will play as they carry on the medical school’s mission of helping address the physician shortage in our state and region while also serving their communities through medicine.

“As we navigate these changing and challenging times, particularly in the fields of health and medicine, the need for talented, forward-thinking and empathetic physicians is great,” Speights said. “That need is especially high in this region of the country. It is for that reason that the NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine stepped forward ten years ago to help address that need. We have delivered on the promise of educating the next generation of physicians that can meet the demands of health care issues of today and tomorrow, specifically in Arkansas and needed areas in this region. At NYIT, we are more than a medical school; we are also training the next generation of physician leaders.”

Widely viewed as the official start of medical school, the annual coating celebrations signify the beginning of students’ medical education journey. Medical students wear shorter white coats while in training and longer coats when entering the field as physicians.

“What patients will receive with your white coat is a wealth of knowledge, a confident skillset and most of all, a compassionate human ready to take action to help improve their situation,” said Dr. Steven Lewis, NYITCOM at A-State’s associate dean of academic affairs. “To our medical students, I encourage you to wear your white coat with pride and as a reminder of the trust patients and society place in our profession.”

Among those who received their white coat Saturday was Carter Wilcox, a Little Rock native who was coated by his father Dr. William Wilcox, an internal medicine physician in Central Arkansas. Wilcox will be joined in Jonesboro by his girlfriend Kara Hoover, who next week will join the inaugural class of the A-State College of Veterinary Medicine.

“When we began applying to schools, we really hoped we’d be able to move together, and things just couldn’t have worked out better,” Wilcox said. “We both loved our programs and feel really blessed to get to start this journey in the same place.”

As part of Saturday’s program, incoming students Jaleel Balentine of Jonesboro and Olivia Manning of Monette received the fourth-annual Dr. Michael and Julie Isaacson Scholarship. The award was established in 2023 by Ritter Arnold, along with his brother Paul Arnold and sister Melissa Wren.

Arnold named the scholarship in honor of his good friends, who for decades served Jonesboro through medicine, Michael as a cardiologist at NEA Baptist and his wife Julie as a nurse and nurse educator. The scholarship recipients must be from select Northeast Arkansas counties and must express a strong interest in practicing medicine in the area.