Each summer, Sidney Kimmel Medical College welcomes its new class of medical students at the moving rite of passage, the White Coat Ceremony.
2026 will be no exception, when on July 31, surrounded by their family, friends, and fellow medical students, the SKMC Class of 2030 celebrates the official kickoff of their medical careers.
This year will be especially significant, as it will be marked not only by the students formally receiving and donning their white coats and reciting the Hippocratic Oath. For the first time, every student in the class will also receive their own personal stethoscope.
This historic donation was made possible by the generosity of Nancy Czarnecki, MD ’65. The Czarnecki Family Stethoscope Endowment Fund ensures that all future incoming SKMC medical students will be able to take advantage of this exciting opportunity as they embark on their own healthcare journeys.
“I remember receiving my first stethoscope,” she shares. “It represented my dream of becoming a doctor, and the earliest days of my lifelong commitment to building a brighter future for my patients. My husband and I wanted to give this gift in perpetuity to our future generations of healers.”
Sadly, her husband, Joseph E. Czarnecki, DO, passed away on April 18. “He was a strong supporter of me and our loyalty to Jefferson and the Stethoscope Fund,” she says.
This is not the first time that Czarnecki has made history at Jefferson. As a member of the Class of 1965, which celebrated its 60th anniversary last year, she was a part of this singular class’ distinction as the first in Jefferson’s history to include women. As one of an initial group of eight women, she was both the first woman to matriculate to – and graduate from – the medical college.
