The white coat rested neatly across Lina Morales’ lap as the first-year nursing student sat seven rows from the Bass Performance Hall stage.
Her eyes stayed on the stage, where pharmacy student Zoe Leal stood at the podium in her own white coat and asked hundreds of future health professionals: “What is your drive?”
Leal was 7 when she watched coverage of Hurricane Katrina, heartbroken and wishing she could help. The desire led her to become a paramedic. Passion brought her into healthcare, she said, but that alone would not carry students through long lectures, difficult exams and moments of doubt. Drive would.
Morales nodded at Leal’s words. At 42, Morales knew something about nontraditional paths. She had spent nearly 20 years styling hair and returned to school for nursing when the pandemic shut down work deemed nonessential.
Morales was among almost 600 students recognized across UNT Health Fort Worth’s two White Coat Ceremony on Aug. 27 as the university expands programs aimed at addressing Texas’ healthcare workforce needs. Pharmacy, physical therapy, clinical nutrition and nursing students received their coats together during the morning ceremony.
Taadesha Gabriale-Samone Denson, a UNT Health Fort Worth student, shakes Dean of College of Pharmacy and Health Professions Evan Robinson’s hand during UNT Health’s White Coat Ceremony on Aug. 27, 2026, at Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth. (Christine Vo | Fort Worth Report)
Two nursing cohorts received coats during the morning ceremony. One included 30 students who started classes four days earlier. The other one, which includes Morales, had completed two semesters. By spring, Dean Cindy Weston said, the College of Nursing expects four cohorts to be advancing through the program simultaneously.
UNT Health has held the ceremony since 1996 as a rite of passage marking students’ first entry into the health professions. Provost Christopher Ray said the white coat represents professionalism and the trust between a healthcare provider and the patient.
It took Morales six years to earn her white coat.
She completed prerequisites at Tarrant County College, transferred to the University of Texas at Arlington for upper-division courses and entered UNT Health’s nursing program in spring 2026.
She never stopped working. Morales continues practicing cosmetology nearly full time at the Hurst studio she leases. Her children were in college, too, adding to the financial responsibilities that she and her husband carried — but school went on her calendar first. Work filled whatever time remained. When a major test approached, she closed her appointment book and studied.
“It’s hard, but I just do it,” Morales said. “You do what you have to do every day.”
Lina Morales, a UNT Health Fort Worth student, greets her friends after receiving her white coat during UNT Health’s White Coat Ceremony on Aug. 27, 2026, at Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth. (Christine Vo | Fort Worth Report)
Nursing felt less like a departure from her cosmetology career than an extension of it, Morales said. Styling hair helped clients feel better about themselves externally. Nursing could help them internally.
But learning nursing required time. Time to read. Time to study. Time for classes, clinical training and exams.
That time had to come from somewhere.
Morales missed quality time with her husband, who took up more responsibilities at home while she studied. She missed the freedom to drive to Austin to visit one of her children. She missed friends. She missed milestones as her best friend’s young children grew up.
Morales accepted those sacrifices as she knew they would ultimately improve her life and her family’s future. She also dedicates everything she does to a daughter who died at 4 years old in 2005.
“I chose to make decisions in life and everything I do to make her proud,” Morales said.
Elizabeth Torres, a UNT Health Fort Worth student, hugs friends and family after receiving her white coat at UNT Health’s White Coat Ceremony on Aug. 27, 2026, at Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth. (Christine Vo | Fort Worth Report)
Those reasons make Leal’s question land.
Leal grew up in a low-income household and became the first in her family to graduate from college. She said she could no longer call herself a first-generation college student because her father recently earned a master’s degree in financial management. During college, Leal met her husband. Their four children later became her drive.
“I’m here to tell you today that nontraditional does not mean nonsuccessful,” Leal said.
Akolde Chol, a UNT Health Fort Worth student, receives her white coat during UNT Health’s White Coat Ceremony on Aug. 27, 2026, at Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth. (Christine Vo | Fort Worth Report)
Morales was building a second career inside a nursing college still building itself. The UNT System Board of Regents established the College of Nursing in February 2023 to help address a statewide nursing shortage. Its first prelicensure Bachelor of Science in Nursing cohort graduated Aug. 14, less than two weeks before the White Coat Ceremony.
Most of the students come from Dallas-Fort Worth, Weston said, allowing the college to prepare prospective nurses who already have ties to the communities where they may eventually work.
First-year nursing student Cici Yaaqub came to UNT Health after studying biology for two years at UNT Dallas, which offers a 2+2 nursing pathway. She learned about the Fort Worth program at a campus event. No one in her family worked in healthcare, she said, and Yaaqub wanted to be the first.
Cici Yaaqub, a UNT Health Fort Worth student, receives her white coat during UNT Health’s White Coat Ceremony on Aug. 27 at Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth. (Christine Vo | Fort Worth Report)
Before nursing school, Yaaqub worked as a technician in a nursing home and a hospital. The work strengthened her desire to support patients during some of their most frightening moments.
“I want to make a difference in someone’s life,” Yaaqub said.
Now in her third semester, Yaaqub has begun clinical training. She has watched nurses move between medications, assessments and documentation during long shifts. She has also seen short staffing causing overwork, stress and burnout. The shortage has not discouraged her.
“That just makes me want to work even harder to be a nurse, to be there for people when there is a shortage,” Yaaqub said.
Amanda Le, a UNT Health Fort Worth student, receives her white coat during UNT Health’s White Coat Ceremony on Aug. 27, 2026, at Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth. (Christine Vo | Fort Worth Report)
For Morales, another year of classes, clinical training and exams stood between the coat and that workforce.
Morales had worked at her studio every day that week except Thursday, which she reserved for the ceremony. Later, she planned to take her husband back to campus so he could meet the classmates and professors who had become part of her daily life.
Backstage, Morales held the coat in her hands. When her name was called, she walked toward the stage, handed the coat to a faculty member and turned toward the audience.
The faculty member slipped the coat onto her shoulders. Morales was not a nurse yet. Another year of work remained.
The next day, she had homework to complete. The day after that, she would return to work at her studio.
But for that one morning, the coat was a visible symbol of what had driven Morales through six years of school — her family’s sacrifices and the promise she had carried for more than two decades to make her daughter proud.
Dang Le is the higher education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at dang.le@fortworthreport.org.
The Fort Worth Report partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.
The Report’s higher education coverage is supported in part by major higher education institutions in Tarrant County, including Tarleton State University, Tarrant County College, Texas A&M-Fort Worth Christian University, Texas Wesleyan University, the University of Texas at Arlington and UNT Health Fort Worth.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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