Before med school, Calvin MacDonald helped create 3D-printed bionic arms for children. Natalie Marshall hopes to become her family’s fifth generation physician, and in honor of that goal, came to the College of Medicine White Coat Ceremony with her late grandfather’s embroidered doctor’s coat. Both were among 120 M.D. students in the class of 2028 who were coated Monday in recognition that they are now colleagues in healthcare.

The new physicians-in-training include artists, engineers, athletes and crisis counselors. More than 80% did medical research before entering medical school. They received undergraduate degrees from BYU, Emory, John’s Hopkins, Ohio State, Rice and Vanderbilt. Thirty of them are UCF alumni.

MacDonald is one of those Knights. He worked with children at Limbitless Solutions, an organization based at UCF that specializes in accessibility technology including bionics for children missing limbs. He says he has always wanted to become a doctor and that his work with children taught him patience, understanding and the ability to communicate with those he will care for in the future.

Innovation and discovery are the core of Limbitless’ work and both topics were themes of this year’s White Coat Ceremony. UCF President Alexander N. Cartwright told students of their opportunity to learn at the university’s biosciences cluster minutes from one of the world’s most visited airports.

“Your new home at UCF’s Academic Health Sciences Center will embed you in health education, research and clinical practice — right in the heart of Orlando’s Medical City at Lake Nona,” he says. “At UCF, we turn our excellence into impact, and we boldly innovate where others would never dare. You will have that opportunity to innovate and to transform diagnostics, treatments and therapies to drive health outcomes for your patients.”

Deborah German, vice president for health affairs and founding dean of UCF’s College of Medicine, told students they are joining an innovative, research-based medical school supported by physicians, scientists, clinics and hospitals across Florida.

“Students, today you become part of this community, part of a pioneering, young medical school committed to preparing doctors to face today’s healthcare challenges by putting their patients first,” she says.

That community includes donors like Mark Trolice, founder and medical director of the IVF Center, whose gift paid for all of the students’ white coats. The College of Medicine’s White Coat and Stethoscope campaign raised more than $53,000 this year — the most ever — from donations that included parents, faculty and staff.

Monday’s ceremony included the students’ first class in medical school: The Good Doctor – A UCF Tradition. In it, German asks students to imagine the person they love most in the world is seriously ill with an undiagnosed condition. She asks them to describe the attributes of the physician they would want caring for their loved one. As students suggest a trait, German writes the word on a blackboard that stays on display at the medical school all year.

This year students came up with 35 words including passionate, reliable, courageous, resilient, knowledgeable, ethical, curious and accountable. When a student suggested humble, German responded, “That means it’s not about us, it’s about the patient.” When another suggested caring, their dean replied, “Patients don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Marshall liked the word leader and said it described her grandfather, Manuel Torres, perfectly. He immigrated to the U.S. from Cuba and served patients as an anesthesiologist in South Florida for 50 years. He passed away last year before knowing where his granddaughter would attend medical school.

“It’s exciting to follow in my family’s footsteps,” she says.

Joseph Helmy’s favorite word on The Good Doctor board was humble because he says a physician needs to think about others first. Family and friends traveled from Helmy’s home state of Tennessee to join him at the ceremony, and took turns hugging, back slapping and fist-pumping the new UCF physician-in-training as he wore his new white coat. Nearby stood Father Karas, Helmy’s Coptic Orthodox priest.

“I made the trip,” Father Karas says. “I had to come. Joseph is such a good person, my spiritual son.”