The very first class of medical students in East Texas has begun its journey at the University of Texas at Tyler.

A White Coat Ceremony for the Class of 2027 was held at the Tyler campus recently, and the university announced that 95% of the students in the inaugural class are from East Texas.

At least one, Grace Stephens, has ties to Mineola, having attended school here until age 13 and still having friends and family in the area.

She is living in Lindale.

Once the students completed the traditional ceremony, they dove right in, with emergency medical training.

Stephens said the ceremony was “super exciting.” She said it felt monumental and “made the whole experience feel real.”

For her and her classmates, it marked the end of the lengthy application process and the beginning of the steps to become doctors.

White coat ceremonies were traditionally held at the end of medical school, but later a shorter ceremony was begun for the beginning of the process – to impart a sense of importance.

Part of the aim of the new medical school is to recruit and train students from the area with an eye on then keeping them in East Texas to address a major shortage of medical personnel in the region.

One way to do that, explained UT Tyler’s Elizabeth Wingfield, is that the first two inaugural classes will have their educations paid for.

That way, they can start without a huge debt to repay, which hopefully will make a difference when considering higher paying positions in larger metropolitan markets.

Stephens said she was always drawn to mission work, and a being good at science and biology, she decided she could combine the two.

She hopes to become a pediatrician.

“I love kids and families,” she said, and wants to work with them.

She already has had some taste of that, having worked at nearby Sky Ranch after completing studies at East Texas Baptist in Marshall.

The emergency medical training is helping the students “get their toes wet,” Stephens said. “We’re learning a lot.”

In August they will start the traditional classroom training as well, while working toward a certification in emergency medicine by year’s end.

Wingfield said once the students complete their medical training, the school will be working to keep them in the area for their residencies.

“Our goal is to keep them here,” she said, with programs offered at Tyler and perhaps other hospitals.