From classroom to clinic
Members of the UF PA Class of 2027 receive white coats in May 30 ceremony
June 3, 2026 — A rite of passage for future healthcare professionals, the white coat symbolizes the trust patients put in their providers during the most vulnerable times of their lives, as well as the responsibility providers have to champion their patients’ needs.
For 59 members of the University of Florida College of Medicine School of Physician Assistant Studies Class of 2027, the gravity and excitement of this event was felt May 30, in a ceremony at the G. Edward Evans Champions Club.
UF School of PA Studies Director Melissa Turley, Pharm.D., MPAS ’05, PA-C, acknowledged that the day marked a special moment for the students as they donned their coats for the first time.
“It’s more than just a piece of clothing,” she said. “It signifies your entrance into an incredible profession and a symbol of the trust your patients will place in you. Behind every chart is a person with hopes, fears and trust in your abilities. Never forget that your white coat opens doors into people’s lives at their most vulnerable moments. Wear this coat with pride, but also with the weight of responsibility it carries. Your unique perspective and talents are gifts that no textbook can teach.”
‘The real transformation’ to come
In her keynote speech to the UF PA Class of 2027 during their white coat ceremony, Ashley Love, MPAS '15, PA-C, discussed the first time she understood the gravity and responsibility of the PA profession, and congratulated the students as they embark on their journeys to care for patients.
Photo by Charles Poulton
Addressing the crowd of faculty, students and their loved ones, keynote speaker Ashley Love, MPAS ’15, PA-C, let the UF PA Class of 2027 in on a secret: “Today may feel like the moment you officially become second-year students,” she said, “but the real transformation happens quietly off stage, in a moment you’ll never expect.”
She described her experience on her third clinical rotation, helping to deliver a newborn for the first time. Listening to its fast heartbeat with a tiny stethoscope, she heard the distinct sound of a murmur.
“After months of studying and practicing physical exams, I was overcome with excitement,” said Love, also a clinical assistant professor at the UF School of PA Studies. “The textbook was real. I had found something really hard to find.”
But when Love presented her findings to her attending physician, she watched as his face fell and shoulders slumped, and he walked out of the room to explain to an anxious mother that her baby may have a heart condition.
“In that moment I became a second-year student, not because I had heard the murmur correctly, but because I finally understood what it meant and whose lives it would impact,” she said. “That is the true significance of this transition over the next year.”
Love told the members of the class they will experience incredible joys and a lot of firsts in their upcoming clinical year — the first correct diagnosis, the first procedure that clicks, the first time they earn a patient’s trust. All of these are important steps on the journey to becoming a PA.
“As students of the University of Florida PA program, you already know the importance of knowledge, discipline, critical thinking and clinical excellence, but I hope that over the next year you learn something much harder to teach: the human side of healthcare,” she said. “I hope you learn how powerful it is to sit with a frightened patient for an extra minute. I hope you learn that humility earns trust, and I hope you learn that while patients may — will — forget the treatments you’ve recommended or the lab values you interpreted, they will never forget how you make them feel.”
The next chapter
College of Medicine interim Dean Jennifer Hunt, M.D., M.Ed., congratulated students from the PA Class of 2027 on achieving this milestone, which closes one chapter of their stories on becoming healers, and opens a new page.
“Tomorrow we’ll start the next chapter, where your days are filled with observing and learning from masterful clinicians and having deeply meaningful interactions,” she said.
The experiences in store and the memories to be made during the upcoming clinical year, Hunt said, will serve as impactful paragraphs and chapters in their stories.
“This white coat that we give you today is precious,” she said. “It is not just a uniform; it’s a promise that walks into every patient’s room with you. And today it marks a major milestone in the story of you, but the real memories that will fill the pages of that story will happen inside the white coat: The scared patient who squeezes your hand and holds on tight as their bed is wheeled into the operating room. The family that you sit quietly with when there are no more options. The diagnosis you make because you spent an extra 10 minutes, you used your intuition and you listened deeper. These are the pages that your parents and loved ones always knew were being written. These are the pages that matter.”
Hear from members of the UF PA Class of 2027
Patrick Mitchell
Photo by Danielle Ivanov
Patrick Mitchell
“By the time I got to high school, I knew I wanted to take care of people and had my sights set on the healthcare field. It was not until my internship at St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut, during my senior year of college that I started working with PAs, giving me my first glimpse at this great profession. The white coat symbolizes our transition to hands-on clinical work, showing we have gained the knowledge and trust to go out into the community and help those in need. I am really looking forward to gaining hands-on procedural experience as well as putting together everything we have learned to help real patients get back to their normal lives.”
Gabriela Gomez
Photo by Danielle Ivanov
Gabriela Gomez
“I knew I wanted to pursue medicine from a very young age, but my passion for the PA profession truly began during my high school medical program. On a field trip to our local hospital, we passed by the operating room, and I still remember how cinematic the moment felt. The OR doors opened, and I stood there in complete awe as I watched a provider with his hands deep in a patient’s chest. In the middle of the procedure, he looked up at us and waved, and just like that, the doors closed again. I immediately asked our tour guide who he was, and she replied, ‘Oh, that is our PA.’ I rushed home that same day and spent hours researching the profession, and the more I learned about the PA role, the more deeply I fell in love with it. From that moment on, I knew exactly what I was meant to do. I hope to use my future career as a PA to help bridge gaps by providing compassionate, high-quality care to all patients. I want to help people feel heard and understood regardless of their background.”
Kensky Lajeune
Photo by Danielle Ivanov
Kensky Lajeune
“Receiving my white coat means the world to me. One of my biggest reasons for being interested in medicine was my mother. She is a nurse, and I wanted to emulate her. She drives me to be better. In my clinical year, I look forward to putting my skills to the test. I feel like the bulk of my learning begins there. It’ll be completely different from sitting in a lecture, hearing about disorders and procedures, compared with actually witnessing and performing them.”
Scenes from the ceremony
Photos by Charles Poulton
