June 14, 2024 — When UF physician assistant student Gabrielle Register walked across the stage of the Health Professions, Nursing & Pharmacy Auditorium Friday, June 7, she smiled wide as her mother, Monica Jetté, PA ’93, placed her first white coat over her shoulders.

“My whole life I’ve watched my mom provide compassionate, excellent care for her patients,” said Register, whose mom works in the department of surgery at UF. “She taught me the importance of caring for and honoring every patient as an individual, and she has been supporting me all the way through this PA school process. Receiving my white coat from her as I prepare to enter the clinical world really meant the world to me.”

On this momentous occasion, she and 52 other members of the UF School of Physician Assistant Studies class of 2025 received their personalized white coats in a ceremony to signify the students’ transition to their upcoming clinical year in the program. After absorbing a swath of medical terminologies and technologies over the past year, they will now work with patients for the first time as they undergo clinical rotations during the final year of their program.

Nina Multak, Ph.D., MPAS, PA-C, the associate dean and Randolph B. Mahoney Director of the UF School of PA Studies, said the class is lucky enough to soon learn from and work alongside a group of elite clinical teams at UF, referencing the fact that UF Health is a member of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Medical Network.

“Each of you has the same DNA as Team USA athletes, driving excellence to be the best version of yourself and to provide the highest caliber patient care that you can,” she said. “We recognize your outstanding efforts under the guidance of the same coaches who care for these world-class athletes.”

Liz Brownlee, DMSc, MPAS ’03, PA-C, director of didactic education at the UF School of PA Studies, compared the students to caterpillars on the precipice of transforming into butterflies.

“Like a caterpillar wraps itself in its cocoon, you’re going to wrap yourselves in your white coats,” she said. “Use it to fortify yourself against trivialities you’ll probably encounter in your clinical year. But remember that even after you finish PA school, that’s not the end. You need to keep learning because medicine is always changing.”

Assistant Professor Petar Breitinger, MPAS, PA-C, shared his excitement with the class of 2025 for making it to the next step of their PA school journey and offered a few words of advice: “Our greatest teachers are our patients,” he said. “Learn from their concerns. To your patients, ; it means being a patient advocate.”