Hanesworth inspires audiences at 2020 White Coat

The 2020 MUSC College of Pharmacy White Coat Ceremony was an invitation-only affair with families and friends of the entering Class of 2024 tuning in to a livestream on the College’s YouTube channel. Remote and on-site audiences alike were treated to a stirring call by keynote speaker Erica Hanesworth ’97 ’98.

“What is life like as a pharmacy student?” she asked the students during the August 14 event at the Trident Technical College Conference Center. “In a word, challenging. But in life, if it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you.”

After getting the students to look at each person sitting around them, she said “These are the people who will become your family for the next four years. You will form some formidable bonds with these people that will last a lifetime.”

The ceremony itself reflected those lifelong bonds. The decision to gather the students in person, despite the challenging logistics of social distancing, was made so they could connect to one other during this important induction ritual.

“There is a great unity in the pharmacy education experience,” said Philip Hall, dean of the MUSC College of Pharmacy. “They don the white coats together, they sign and recite the Oath of the Pharmacist together, they progress through the curriculum together, and four years from now they will get hooded together. And they will be MUSC pharmacy alumni together for the rest of their lives.”

In honor of this first step in a lifelong journey with MUSC, the white coats were donated by the MUSC College of Pharmacy Alumni Association.

Hanesworth, a national figure in the pharmacy landscape, is the immediate past president of the National Pharmaceutical Association and a clinical pharmacist with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. She received her bachelor of science (1997) and doctor of pharmacy (1999) from the MUSC of Pharmacy where she also holds a clinical appointment of clinical assistant professor.