D’Youville’s Inaugural Medical School Class Takes the Next Step at Historical White Coat Ceremony

D’Youville University’s inaugural class of osteopathic medical students reached another milestone Friday as 96 future physicians received their white coats during the College of Osteopathic Medicine’s first White Coat Ceremony.

Surrounded by family, friends, faculty and university leaders at Forbes Theatre in downtown Buffalo, students were formally welcomed into the medical profession just weeks after beginning their education at Western New York’s first osteopathic medical school.

For some students, the moment carried an added personal significance. While Dean Nicholas Camposeo, DO, FACEP, coated many members of the class, students with relatives who are physicians had the opportunity to receive their white coats from those family members.

The white coat represents far more than the beginning of medical training. For osteopathic physicians, it symbolizes a commitment to scientific excellence, professionalism and compassionate, whole-person care. It also reflects the osteopathic philosophy of understanding each patient as an interconnected whole, body, mind and spirit, and looking beyond symptoms to understand the person behind them.

David Martinke, DO, who has served as Medical Director of Primary Care for Western New York and is affiliated with Sisters of Charity Hospital and Buffalo General Medical Center, delivered the ceremony’s keynote address. Drawing on his experiences throughout his career in medicine, Martinke offered students one particularly simple piece of advice: talk less and listen more.

Through stories from his own experiences as a physician, Martinke emphasized the importance of listening to patients and how taking the time to understand their experiences can make a meaningful difference in their care.

Camposeo also addressed the inaugural class, sharing his pride in the students and what the opening of a new medical school means for Buffalo and Western New York.

He reflected on arriving in Buffalo when the region’s well-known “We’re Talking Proud” campaign captured a sense of pride in Western New York. Decades later, Camposeo told students that same sense of pride resonates as D’Youville builds a medical school in the heart of Buffalo, one with the potential to educate physicians who will serve the region for generations.

For Camposeo, the ceremony was also an opportunity to remind students that as the first class, they are establishing the culture and traditions that future generations of D’Youville medical students will inherit.

The ceremony concluded with all 96 students reciting the Osteopathic Oath, a formal pledge outlining the ethical responsibilities, commitment to patient confidentiality and foundational principles of osteopathic medicine. The oath marked another meaningful step in their journey toward becoming osteopathic physicians.

Receiving the white coat represents both an achievement and a promise for D’Youville’s inaugural class: to wear it with pride while committing themselves to service, equity and the health and well-being of the diverse communities they will one day serve.