by Ray Gless

The first AAEC-Prescott Valley Abby Berry to graduate from the University of Arizona Veterinary Medicine Program invited her Principal, Patrick Wellert, to place her white coat on her during the University of Arizona Veterinary Medicine Program's White Coat Ceremony. Abby Berry graduated from AAEC Prescott Valley in 2017. She is starting her clinical program and will travel nationwide, including Ohio, Hawaii, and Prescott Valley, to conduct her four-week clinical sessions. Abby will officially graduate in August 2024 with her doctorate in veterinary medicine and begin practicing shortly after.

The white coat ceremony has become an academic ritual in the health professions: a tradition that signals a transformation of status from an ordinary student to one studying to become a health professional. While donning the white coat is a sign of a changed role, the white coat is also a powerful symbol of transformation. White symbolizes purity, and the white coat symbolizes the purity of purpose being affirmed in becoming a health professional.