They marched in to the skirl of a bagpipe, wearing a mix of smiles and solemnity, striped ties and high heels. One wore electric blue, another power red.

It was the last time they would all come together in such disparate fashion. From now on, their garments would mark them as part of a group: the class of 2014 of the USF College of Medicine.

“There’s really something very special about this white coat,” Dr. Stephen Klasko told them as he donned his own. “When I take this off “ – taking off his suit jacket – “and I put on this coat, something happens.

“I recognize the moment I have this coat on, people look at me differently,” said Dr. Klasko, dean of the College of Medicine and CEO of USF Health.

The coat is both an honor and a burden. Friday’s White Coat Ceremony, both a celebration and an assumption of responsibility.

Students listened to advice and recited an oath of commitment to medicine.

“Wearing the white coat is like the ultimate ice breaker,” said John Emerson, a fourth-year student who is president of the Student Council. “You walk into a room and meet a complete stranger and within minutes, they are telling you the most intimate details of their lives.”

The coat conveys that trust, the first tool a doctor needs in order to heal.

“Understand that the importance of not so much the image of the white coat, but what you do while you wear the white coat,” urged Dr. Michael Flannery, internal medicine professor and this year’s recipient of the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award.

Then faculty members, doctors who received their first coats a generation ago, helped this newest cadre of students into their own jackets. Students tugged at their lapels, settling the coats on their shoulders, getting used to the weight.

Then the cheering began – an audience full of teary mothers and proud fathers, boisterous friends and raucous cousins – all clapping to mark the day.

“It represents all the hard work I’ve put in,” said Jessika Contreras, a Colombia native whose family now lives in Orlando. “All the hours at the library, all the sacrifice. I’m so excited. I can’t put it into words.

“I feel like my life is just now starting.”

For Michael Perrone, who came to USF from West Palm Beach, the coat marks an end and a beginning.

“It’s the beginning of a new chapter in my life,” he said. “It’s kind of surreal. It’s heavy. A heavy responsibility.”

Lowell Dawson, 36, begins medical school already carrying responsibilities. He stood in his white coat Friday with 11-month-old daughter Aleia on his left arm and 2-year-old Aniya on his right. For 10 years, he worked alongside doctors around Tampa Bay as a surgical first assistant in cardiovascular surgery.

It wasn’t enough.

“I’ve been waiting my whole adult lifetime for this,” Dawson said. “Today is a milestone.”

But still hard to grasp.

“It’s just unbelievable,” he said. “This can’t be real.”

– Story by Lisa Greene, photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications

CLASS OF 2014 STATS

• 120 students – 68 men and 52 women

• Overall undergraduate GPA – 3.75

• Underrepresented in medicine – 15 percent

• 90 percent from Florida colleges and universities; other 10 percent from out-of-state schools, including such institutions as Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Emory, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern and UCLA.

Source: USF College of Medicine Admissions Office