Sixty students, from the United States and other countries, including one Anguillian, have graduated from Saint James Medical School in Anguilla and will now be continuing their studies to qualify as physicians.
The White Coat Ceremony, as the event is normally called, was held on the lawn area at Cap Juluca, on Friday, December 12. The ceremony was presided over by a number of faculty members including Dr Claude Bernard Illiou, Dean of Basic Sciences.
This is the 12th White Coat Ceremony for the Saint James School of Medicine,” Dr Illiou told The Anguillian. “We will be sending sixty students who have finished the Basic Sciences to Chicago to continue their education in Clinical Sciences. There have been about 366 students who have finished the Basic Sciences so far, and recently we have had four students completely graduating from the programme with their MD degree this year.”
The Dean was asked how St James Medical School had taken root in Anguilla. “I think we are doing well,” he replied. “The school is growing. We are having more and more students enrolling – and they are contributing to the economy of Anguilla – and we look forward to continuing.”
During the ceremony, Dr Illiou administered the Hippocratic Oath, historically taken by physicians and physician assistants. Just before doing so, he stated: “Over the past sixteen months, I have seen these students struggle through the Basic Sciences, learning, maturing, both academically and professionally. They sought help from their colleagues, other individuals and their professors, and I am proud of all of them. This has been a very hard road and a long journey for all. It is not an easy task and those who answered the calling certainly are not doing it for financial reasons or prestige, but because they know that they can make a difference in somebody’s life.”
Speaking directly to the students, he said: “Without your help as medical students, physicians and professionals, the advancement in medicine will not continue. So both you, and other medical students, throughout the world, have an obligation to continue to challenge current techniques and procedures to find better ways of treating patients. You will have to step up to the challenge of new diseases which are on the horizon, and new medication for treatments, so that you can continue to give your patients the best possible service.”
Among the students, now furthering their medical studies, is Anguillian Jordesha Hodge, daughter of Joshua and Margaret Hodge of Island Harbour. A past Sixth Form student at the Albena Lake Hodge Comprehensive School, she did her Undergraduate Studies at the University of Florida, where she graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Bio-Chemistry. She became a student at Saint James Medical School in August/September 2013.
Like the other students, Ms Hodge’s parents, other family members and friends, were present for her graduation at the White Coat Ceremony.
Meanwhile, another batch of students will be arriving in Anguilla early in January to begin their Basic Sciences studies at St James Medical School, where one of the faculty members is Dr O. M. Linda Banks, who lectures in Clinical Psychology.
