University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine welcomes 100 students into 100th class

It was a proud day on Sunday for hundreds of families as the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine welcomed 100 new students into its 100th class.

The students put on their white coats for the first time at a White Coat Ceremony Sunday morning at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, 5850 S. Woodlawn Ave. The number of new students in the 100th class was not planned — it was all serendipity.

The class includes first-generation college graduates, career changers, a Navy veteran, and graduates of Chicago-area and other Illinois schools.

The students will pursue research across a variety of subjects — cancer, biology, immunology, neurobiology, computational neuroscience, and quantum biology and medicine.

The White Coat Ceremony marks the formal entry of a student into the medical profession, and the responsibility of caring for patients that comes with that formal entry. The Pritzker School of Medicine has been holding the ceremonies since 1989.

The University of Chicago Medicine health system has a history dating back to 1927.