First, congrats on taking the first steps to help other students. As you walk through your path to becoming a PA you will find that the support in this community is incredible and now YOU are a part of that support.
So, you want to run a successful Pre-PA club, where does one even start!?
Start at your university or even your high school for that matter and seek out the resources that they have for students. At, we had access to a student resource that would help us to start whatever club our hearts desired. If you don't have this, I suggest reaching out to a professor or a career counselor for some guidance. If you are in high school, I would do the same thing with a teacher. Use clubs that are already established, perhaps a pre- health club or a health/science related club to reach out to students who may be interested in a pre-pa club. If you can get access to an established club’s email lists or even go to a meeting you can share information about the new pre-pa club and what you plan to do.
What exactly should you plan to do with a Pre-PA club?
As the former president of the NC State Pre-PA club I can only speak to my experience and what worked for us but the beauty of starting the club is you can make it whatever you want. Hopefully what we did can give you some ideas and you can change/ add to them as you see fit.
At NC State we met with our club once a month on the same day at the same time. Typically guests would speak for 30-45 minutes and the remainder of the meeting would be a Q&A.
Examples of speakers and presenters to have at pre-pa club meetings:
Local PA schools- If your university or high school is close to a PA School, you can reach out to them and ask if they would be willing to come speak to your club. On the schools website search for an admissions counselor/ coordinator and email whoever is listed. More often than not, they are more than happy to come out. If the school is not local, you can set up a virtual meeting where they can facetime/ zoom into the club. They typically talk about their school, admissions and tips and tricks that they have found helpful to students. Some schools will even bring their own students to answer any questions that they club may have. If you are interested in what one of these invite emails looked like you can find me on Instagram @JadaMarie.PA or email me JadaMariePA@Gmail.com and I will send you the resources that I have.
Practicing PAs- Similar to inviting schools to come speak, you can also invite practitioners to come and speak about their experience and their journey to becoming a PA. Some speakers would offer advice and things they wish they knew and then answer questions from students. Again, if the provider is not local, they can video conference into a meeting.
Local places that students can get clinical hours- some home health/ nursing homes are always looking for extra help and they like to recruit pre-pa students. They would come to the club and talk about the positions that they have available and flexibility that they would offer students
Workshops are another great meeting idea!
Personal statement Workshops
GRE Studying Workshops
Interview Workshops
CASPA Workshops
PA School visits:
If you had a great turn out or a lot of interest in one particular school, you can try to organize a school visit to the PA School. As a club we visited Campbells PA program and had the opportunity to see the facilities and meet the faculty and staff. This was a great way for students to get a feel for the school and if they are interested in applying.
Organization and Officers:
We had a very simple structure in our club, but it worked for us! Find what works best for you and your school.
President: Responsible for organizing meetings and speakers and for sending email reminders to the club.
VP: Responsible for reserving rooms and helping with the logistics of setting up meetings
Secretary/ Treasurer: Responsible for handling the club dues and recording meeting minutes to send out later for students to reference or for students who missed the meeting
A Note about Dues: At NC State, the pre-pa club is under a bigger pre-health club umbrella. As a member you pay dues to the pre-health club and then funds are allocated to each subgroup. We used our money to get snacks for meetings and for club t-shirts.
More Info/ Questions:
I could write forever about this topic, but I tried to keep things condensed and easy to follow. If you have any lingering questions or if you want me to send you outlines of anything I mentioned in this blog you can find me on Instagram @JadaMarie.PA or email me JadaMariePA@Gmail.com.
