Wake Forest School of Medicine Welcomes 145 New Medical Students at White Coat Ceremony

One hundred forty-five new medical students began their Wake Forest School of Medicine training in Winston-Salem on July 11, receiving white coats as members of the Class of 2030.

For a city where the hospital system is both a major employer and a main source of care, the ceremony added a new cohort to the local physician pipeline. Whether those students ultimately practice in Winston-Salem — especially in neighborhoods with the greatest need — will matter more to residents than the ceremony itself.

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist is the largest employer in Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, with more than 19,220 employees and a clinical system of more than 2,700 physicians. The medical school's ability to train and retain new physicians directly affects clinical capacity, appointment availability, and specialist access for Winston-Salem families.

Wake Forest School of Medicine enrolled 628 MD students in the 2025-26 academic year, including 515 training in Winston-Salem. The Class of 2030 will spend four years in clinical rotations in Winston-Salem, staffing teaching hospitals and community clinics where local residents receive care.

The stakes are especially high in a city with a 20.6% poverty rate, including higher-poverty eastern and southern neighborhoods where many residents lack insurance or a primary care provider. The school's DEAC Clinic — Delivering Equal Access to Care — serves uninsured residents in East Winston and other underserved neighborhoods from Winston East at 2295 E. 14th St., where it relocated in 2022. Two 2024 grants extended the program from Downtown Health Plaza to the Kennedy-Hopkins Medical Building.

Training students in Winston-Salem does not guarantee they will remain in the city, or even in North Carolina. In the 2025-26 residency match cycle, 95.7% of Wake Forest graduates matched into residency programs, but only about 29% matched to North Carolina programs. Among graduates of Wake Forest's Family and Community Medicine residency program, 55% are currently practicing in North Carolina, though the annual figure has ranged from 30% to 80%.

The retention challenge stretches beyond Wake Forest. A study of 2,009 physicians who completed North Carolina residency programs from 2008 through 2011 found that fewer than half remained in the state, and only 65 — about 3% — practiced in rural areas five years later. Approximately 74 of North Carolina's 100 counties lack adequate primary care providers, with a ratio of more than 1,500 residents per provider. Medical residents who complete even a small portion of their training in community health centers, rural clinics, or rural hospitals are more than 10 times as likely to practice in those settings.

The July 11 ceremony followed Y1 Orientation on July 9 and July 10. White Coat Ceremonies began in 1993 through the Arnold P. Gold Foundation at Columbia University as a rite of passage emphasizing humanism and compassion at the start of medical training. The white coat symbolizes the trust patients place in physicians and the profession's commitment to scientific principles. The ceremony is now practiced at 99% of AAMC-accredited medical schools in the United States, representing more than 150 schools.

Wake Forest School of Medicine plans to celebrate with its Charlotte Class of 2030 on July 25, 2026. The Charlotte campus welcomed its inaugural class of 49 four-year medical students, the Class of 2029, in July 2025, marking the first time first-year students began their full medical education in Charlotte.

Whether these 145 students stay in Winston-Salem or the region after graduation depends on residency placement, community ties formed during training, and the institution's ability to create practice opportunities in neighborhoods that need doctors most. Dr. L. Ebony Boulware serves as Dean of Wake Forest University School of Medicine and Chief Academic Officer of Advocate Health.