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Medical students recite the Medical Student Oath. Image by Bryan Clifton

174 Students in College of Medicine Class of 2029 Don White Coats

Aug. 13, 2025 | August 13, 2025 | The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Medicine welcomed 174 new medical students to its campuses in Little Rock and Fayetteville in an Aug. 8 ceremony for the Class of 2029.

The ceremony was livestreamed from both the Robinson Center Performance Hall in Little Rock and the University of Arkansas Don Tyson Center for Agricultural Sciences in Fayetteville, with some parts overlapping.

“We are so happy to have you in the College of Medicine at UAMS,” said Steven Webber, M.D., dean of the college. “And congratulations again on being one of 174 future physicians who were accepted into this class. We received 3,391 applications through the American Medical College Application Services this year. If you do the math, that means just 5% of this year’s applicants are now members of your class.”

Webber said that since the College of Medicine was founded in 1879, it has graduated 11,170 physicians.

“Our obligation is to help you become a truly great physician,” said Webber, a pediatric cardiologist who is in his second year as dean of the college. “That means not just being a knowledgeable, skilled physician, but a doctor who is compassionate and humble, who upholds the highest ethical and professional standards, and who always — always — puts patients first.”

He added: “Each time that you put on your white coat — tonight and in the years ahead — please think about both sides of what it represents: the great privilege and the great responsibility of caring for your patients.”

Keynote speaker Leslie Stone, M.D., an associate professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine who attended medical school at UAMS’ main campus in Little Rock and completed his family medicine residency at UAMS Northwest Regional Campus in Fayetteville, jointly addressed the students from Fayetteville.

He was introduced by Rebecca L. “Becky” Latch, M.D., the college’s associate dean for student affairs, who said that since he joined the UAMS faculty in 2018, “he has become one of our students’ favorite faculty members.”

“While you are here, you are not simply preparing for a job,” Stone told the students. “You are committing to a life in the service of others, in one of society’s most important professions. In this role, your success cannot be measured simply by the salary you’re paid, by the number of surgeries you perform or even the number of lives you save. Rather, it is reflected in the trust your patients and their families place in you, the dedication that your team members bring to their work with you, and the impact that you have on the communities that you may serve.”

He urged the students to remember, “every patient has a story, and that story is important.” Also, “each patient brings a unique story shaped by their upbringing, their culture, their joys and their struggles.”

“Your ability to understand the person behind the patient will be just as important as your ability to interpret lab values or a physical exam,” Stone said.  “In fact, that understanding will often be what allows you to get the right diagnosis or choose the right treatment.”

He urged them to keep in mind that “the human body is only part of the picture. Human experience is equally important. Human behaviors, relationships, social factors and environments shape human health every bit as much as strictly biomedical factors do. Tempering our medical knowledge and skill with humanism and bringing the appropriate balance of those things to our encounters with patients — that is where the art of practicing medicine lies. That’s where healing occurs.”

Stone said patients won’t remember their doctor’s academic achievements, “but they will remember how you made them feel, and often that is what makes the difference between a good outcome and a bad one, no matter how much knowledge or skill or technology we might have.”

In short, he said, “Approach your patients with empathy, curiosity and equanimity, and be the trusted professional you would want at your own bedside.”

Before the ceremony wound down with the donning of the new white coats, the students stood in unison and recited aloud the medical student oath, led by James Graham, M.D., executive associate dean for academic affairs for the college.

Students then neared the stage with members of their academic houses, and as a standing-room-only crowd looked on, were called forward individually. They were followed onstage by friends, family, faculty advisers — and in one case, even the family dog, a standard white poodle — and helped into their white coats to thunderous applause.

After pausing to have an official photo taken, the students proceeded across the stage to shake the hands of Webber and other speakers.