COMP-Northwest welcomes its fourth class

The College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific – Northwest will celebrate its fourth Convocation and white coat ceremony Aug. 2, 2014.

The ceremony, open to students, their families and invited guests, begins at 1 p.m. at Lebanon First Assembly of God Church, 726 West Oak St., Lebanon, Ore.

About 100 osteopathic medical students will celebrate the beginning of their training, and COMP-Northwest will celebrate full matriculation with enrollment of more than 400 students in four classes.

The Convocation keynote speaker will be Oregon State Rep. Sherrie Sprenger, who has spent most of her life in the mid-Willamette Valley. She represents 57,000 citizens in Linn and Marion Counties and serves on the House Education Committee and the Joint Ways and Means Committee on Education.

Convocation will be followed by the white coat ceremony, which marks students’ entry into the health professions. White coat ceremony speaker Al Turner, DO, has faculty appointments at six medical schools. He was named “DO of the Year” by the Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons of Oregon in 2008. COMP-Northwest named Dr. Turner a Lifetime Distinguished Educator last year.

COMP-Northwest is the second medical school campus of the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific, which is part of Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, Calif.

The Convocation and white coat ceremony is part of the student orientation and welcome week for the campus that runs July 30 through Aug. 6. Fall semester classes begin Aug. 11. For more information about welcome week and a list of activities, visit http://www.westernu.edu/students-or/welcome-week/orientation/.