TTUHSC Welcomes Incoming Pharmacy Students at White Coat Ceremony in Amarillo

Event Included Returning Class of 2024 Members

• By Meaghan Collier
• August 14, 2021

Incoming first-year and returning second-year students from the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) Jerry H. Hodge School of Pharmacy campus were officially welcomed into the program at the school’s annual White Coat Ceremony Aug. 14 (Saturday) at the Harrington Auditorium on the TTUHSC Amarillo campus, located at 1300 South Coulter. Similarly, first and second-year students at the School of Pharmacy campus in Dallas received their white coats on Aug. 7, and those in Abilene will hold a White Coat ceremony on Sunday, Aug. 15. 

The event in Amarillo began at 10 a.m., when the school recognized the 30 incoming students of the Class of 2025. Students in this class are from Texas cities including Amarillo, Garland, Midland, Lubbock, Flower Mound, El Paso and Coppell and other states like New Mexico and Colorado. Many of the returning 32 members of the Class of 2024, whose ceremony was postponed last year due to the pandemic, had a White Coat Ceremony at 1 p.m. Members of that class are from Amarillo, Sugar Land, Lubbock, Garland, El Paso, Sachse and Arlington as well as cities in New Mexico, Kentucky, New Jersey and Wisconsin.

Immediately following the ceremonies, an open house was held at the TTUHSC Jerry H. Hodge School of Pharmacy. The open house included an opportunity to tour the school’s facilities and meet faculty, staff and students.

“The White Coat Ceremony is an invitation to the profession and represents a vital step to promote humanism and professionalism in pharmacy education,” Amarillo Regional Dean and Senior Associate Dean of Student Affairs and Admissions Thomas Thekkumkara, Ph.D., said. “It conveys a powerful message when presented in the proper setting, which creates trust in the competencies of those who wear it.”

The Pharm.D. degree program is a four-year program. Incoming students must have 65 credit hours of prerequisites before qualifying for admission. Students will spend their first two years on the Amarillo campus. During their third and fourth years, students may attend classes at the Lubbock, Dallas or Amarillo TTUHSC campuses to complete their coursework.

Opened in 1996, the TTUHSC Jerry H. Hodge School of Pharmacy offers one of the most comprehensive pharmacy education and training programs in the U.S. The school is recognized for its training excellence in clinical, rural, community and administrative pharmacy. Students receive more clinical training than do students from any other pharmacy program in the country. The TTUHSC Jerry H. Hodge School of Pharmacy consistently ranks among the top third of the country’s 140-plus accredited pharmacy programs and offers a PharmD/MBA dual-degree program and associated M.S. and Ph.D. programs in pharmaceutical sciences and biotechnology. The Texas Panhandle Poison Center is housed in the School of Pharmacy in Amarillo.

For additional enrollment information for the pharmacy school, visit the TTUHSC Jerry H. Hodge School of Pharmacy page.