First-year medical students received their white coats in a ceremony Friday as they prepare to start classes at the NYU Long Island School of Medicine.

The school is introducing a hybrid curriculum, in which some cases will include classes on Zoom.

"There's a couple of advantages to using this system we're able to go through the recordings at the speed that we want to," says student Santiago Luis.

Students and professors will also meet in person for small group lessons only.

"We will stay close in spite of the social distancing and masking, but this will hopefully end during your time here in medical school," Chief Academic Officer Dr. Steven Shelov told the students.

Luis says starting medical school during the pandemic is almost like a call to action.

"It's certainly making students like myself that are very enthused about going into the medical profession at a time where it’s definitely needed," he says.

NYU Long Island School of Medicine offers full tuition scholarships with an accelerated three-year curriculum exclusively devoted to training primary care physicians.