On Aug. 23 UConn School of Medicine celebrated its incoming medical students in the Class of 2028 with the traditional annual White Coat Ceremony.
The Class of 2028 has 112 new students selected from over 4,600 applications. Eighty-one percent of the students are from Connecticut, and 32% earned their undergraduate degrees at the University of Connecticut.
The excitement of the incoming class beginning their four-year medical school journey at UConn Health was in the air and upon the smiling faces of these future doctors-to-be, along with their families, and the School of Medicine faculty set to train them.
“I am so excited,” shared Kitty Crosby, 25, of Darien who attended the University of Michigan for her undergraduate degree. “I love Connecticut, and I want to ultimately serve my home state.”
Crosby has a personal mission in wanting to become a UConn-trained physician.
“I wanted to be a doctor ever since my cousin got leukemia and Connecticut doctors saved her. I want other people to have similar success stories,” says Crosby. “We learn about leukemia in our first block of medical school.”
Gaganjot Bedi, 24, of West Hartford is thrilled to be starting UConn medical school. He attended UConn Storrs as an undergrad and is now a proud “double-husky.”
“Today is really a full circle moment,” says Bedi who served as a volunteer at UConn Health in high school, and even shadowed its clinicians. “I hope to become a Connecticut physician to give back and care for the Connecticut community.”
“I am so grateful for UConn,” says Fabio Saccomanno, 24, of New Fairfield who is also a proud double-husky too. He served in the student government as an undergrad at UConn. “I’ve always wanted to be doctor. I have had excellent mentors at UConn. UConn supports students.”
Saccomanno adds, “It was important to me to stay in-state for medical school to give back to Connecticut.”
Class of 2028’s Ellen Fuller, of West Hartford, is carrying on her family’s legacy at UConn School of Medicine.
“I am so grateful to be here,” Fuller said after the White Coat Ceremony. “I’m so excited for the next four years here.”
Fuller is following in the medicine career footsteps of her father Dr. Robert Fuller, the chair of Emergency Medicine at UConn Health, sister Dr. Sarah Fuller a SOM ‘23 graduate now in residency training to become an emergency medicine doctor like her dad at the University of Miami, and also sister Julia, an emergency room charge nurse at Dartmouth Medical Center.
“My white coat feels amazing,” exclaimed Marc Merriman, 24, from New Orleans and a graduate of Louisiana’s Xavier University. “I am looking forward to my first interactions with patients. UConn puts a lot of focus on the importance of medical students early-exposure to patient care experiences.”
But Merriman is not new to UConn Health. For the last two years before medical school, he’s served as a scholar in the Young Innovative Investigator Program (YIIP). It is a unique and intensive 2-year program of the Cato T. Laurencin Institute for Regenerative Engineering.
“I like research,” says Merriman who had the exciting opportunity to assist Laurencin and his lab in its major limb regeneration research underway in the Hartford Engineering a Limb Project (HEAL).
“I’d like to officially welcome the Class of 2028,” shared Marilyn Katz, M.D., assistant dean for Medical Student Affairs at UConn School of Medicine’s 2024 White Coat Ceremony. “The White Coat Ceremony is the epitome of the start of medical school. From this point forward, you are not just a student – you are on your way to being a physician.”
“Welcome to UConn!” exclaimed Dr. Bruce T. Liang, dean of UConn School of Medicine for the last decade. “Your education is in excellent hands. You are the future of medicine for our state and our country. Remember to listen to your patients, they will teach you so much. As future physicians, always remember to give your patients hope.”
Liang added, “Here at UConn we have been producing Connecticut’s health care workforce since 1972. We are the number one producer of Connecticut’s health care workforce.”
Thomas Regan, M.D., assistant dean for Admissions and Student Affairs, concluded “Congratulations to the incoming class. You are now students of medicine, and always will be. Enjoy the journey!”
In addition, SOM Alum from the Class of 1990 served as the ceremony’s keynote speaker and shared that in each new white coat’s pocket there was a note from a UConn SOM alum cheering on each new medical student and sharing how they are here for the student anytime.
“You all worked hard to get here. Soak it all in,” shared Dr. David Karas, the VP of the Medical Alumni Board. “UConn emphasizes its students and student education more than any place. Students are the focus of UConn. I look back fondly on my time here. UConn is a very unique place.”
Welcome and congrats to the UConn School of Medicine’s Class of 2028.
