For NUNM’s newest naturopathic medical students, the white coat comes early.

Before years of coursework and clinical rotations. Before board exams. Long before the letters “ND” follow their names.

The timing is intentional.

At the National University of Natural Medicine’s 2026 White Coat Ceremony, incoming naturopathic medicine students gathered with faculty, family, and friends to mark the beginning of their medical education. Students joining NUNM remotely for their first year took part as well, putting on their coats from afar before the class came together to recite the Naturopathic Doctor’s Oath.

But throughout the ceremony, one idea kept resurfacing: the coat itself matters less than what students choose to do while wearing it.

A coat that carries responsibility

Opening the ceremony, Emma Neiworth-Petshow, ND, CPT, Associate Dean of Clinical Sciences, described the white coat as a “garment that carries an enormous weight of trust, tradition, and responsibility.”

At NUNM, that responsibility takes hold quickly, because students begin working with patients early in their training.

Students begin clinical experiences early in their naturopathic medical education, learning how to move from the science they study in the classroom to caring for an actual person sitting in front of them.

NUNM President and CEO, Melanie Henriksen, ND, LAc, CNM, told students that those early clinical experiences are intentional and important.

“One of the things about naturopathic medicine that sets us apart is we don’t take the easy path,” Dr. Henriksen said. “We don’t decide to follow an algorithm and because a patient presents with X, we must do Y. You are going to be asked to analyze and to think critically and to evaluate the deeper underlying cause of why your patients are presenting with those symptoms and how you can help them.”

Dr. Henriksen, who graduated from NUNM’s naturopathic medicine and Chinese medicine programs in 2005, also reminded students that stepping into that role changes the way people listen to them.

“So whether it’s family or friends or loved ones or patients in the clinic, never forget that your words now carry more weight than they ever have before,” she said.

The coat, then, is not proof that they have all the answers. It is a reminder of the responsibility to keep asking better questions.

Finding the people who will walk beside you

For Elizabeth Goodson, NUNM’s 2026 Student Government Association president, the meaning of the day was more personal.

Goodson began by asking students to look around the room, introduce themselves and take a photo. The reason was simple: medical school moves quickly, and the people sitting nearby may soon become some of the most important people in their lives.

Goodson knew that from experience.

She arrived at her own White Coat Ceremony from out of state, knowing no one at NUNM. Her family could not be there. She carried a photograph of her mother and aunt in her pocket as she recited the oath.

“I remember small flashes, but I remember most how I felt,” she said. “I arrived knowing nobody here and feeling very out of place.”

That feeling did not last.

Over the years that followed, Goodson watched classmates become the people who showed up through major life changes and the demands of medical school.

“Like any family, we are not perfect, but we rise together and we protect each other with the recognition that nobody does this alone,” she told the incoming students.

That community became especially important less than a year after Goodson received her white coat, when her mother died unexpectedly shortly before summer classes began.

Goodson returned to campus unsure how she was going to keep moving forward. Her classmates and faculty helped her do exactly that.

“Nobody plans on needing that kind of family,” she said. “Here, you’ll have it anyways.”

It was a reminder to the incoming class that becoming a physician may be an individual goal, but getting there does not have to be an individual experience

What if the white coat really does change something?

Dee Saunders, ND, MSiMR, NUNM’s Vice President of Clinical Education and Strategic Medical Operations, brought a different question to the ceremony: Can putting on a white coat actually change the way you think?

Dr. Saunders introduced students to “enclothed cognition,” a psychological concept exploring how clothing and the meaning associated with it may influence the person wearing it.

She shared research in which participants wearing what they believed was a doctor’s white coat performed differently on attention-based tasks than other participants. In one experiment, the physical coats were identical. The difference was what participants had been told the coat represented.

For students preparing to balance patient conversations with the demands of clinical decision-making, Dr. Saunders offered the research with some humor.

“The coat”, she told them, “also holds powers of increased focus and selective attention.”

Superpowers might be a stretch.

The symbolism, however, is real.

A promise students will make again

After receiving their coats with the help of NUNM faculty, students stood together to recite the Naturopathic Doctor’s Oath.

Chief Medical Officer, Sheryl Estlund, ND, reminded the class that the oath was not simply another item on the ceremony agenda.

“What you’re about to say is not just a formality, it’s a promise and a commitment,” Dr. Estlund said. “It’s medicine’s core promise to yourself, your patients, and this profession.”

The next time these students recite that oath together will be graduation, when they receive their doctoral degrees.

A lot will happen between those two moments.

They will move from classrooms into NUNM’s teaching clinics. They will encounter patients whose stories challenge what they thought they knew. Classmates who were strangers at orientation will become colleagues and lifelong friends.

And the white coat they put on for the first time will eventually feel a little less new.

That may be the point.

The ceremony was not about declaring these students finished. It was about recognizing that they have begun.

As Goodson told the class before they received their coats:

“See your coat as a promise. We’ll help you keep it.”