Today’s guest post is written by Ashley Koch, a second semester freshman in college who is pursuing a career as a physician assistant and has been working towards making her dream a reality since she was in high school. Follow Ashley’s journey at @akoch_coke
I have always known I wanted to be a PA. As a freshman in college, I knew that I wanted to start doing everything I could to prepare for my PA school application. Even though the application process was so far away, I was still dedicated to doing anything I could to start preparing myself for PA school and I will be sharing how I began this journey at such an early stage in my life!
I realized pretty early on that I wanted to pursue a career in the medical field; throughout my childhood it seemed as if at any time someone got injured, I was always the person called on to help them. With this desire of helping others continuing on as I grew older, the only dilemma I faced was deciding between pursuing the career of either a nurse or a doctor (at the time I was unaware of the PA profession). I felt as if there were pros to both careers, but there wasn’t one that was peaking my complete interest; I was instead desiring a career that was ideally a perfect combination of a nurse and doctor. From this interest, as soon as I discovered the Physician Assistant profession, I knew that it was in my path.
Toward the ending of my freshman year of high school, I was introduced to a program at my local Northside Hospital called “Volunteen.” This program gave teenagers the opportunity to not only experience what working in a hospital environment felt like but also determine if this environment was one they could picture in their dream job. After going through their application and interview process, I was accepted! During this experience, my love for medicine only grew stronger. I spent every remaining summer of my high school career volunteering at Northside Hospital in their Family Centered Care, Women’s Surgery, and Baby Photography positions. Along with my experience as a Volunteen, I was at the same time researching more about the Physician Assistant career in order to further confirm my desire to pursue it.
When it became time for me to apply to colleges, I made the decision to only apply to universities that also had the Physician Assistant Master’s Program. With my home state being Georgia, I had a couple of options to choose from and ultimately decided on attending Augusta University!
Within my first couple of weeks in college, I immediately sought out and joined my university’s PA club; this action alone has provided me with a greater understanding of not only the Physician Assistant career, but also all of the details surrounding the application process. After learning about the basic requirements for most PA schools, I dedicated my Christmas break to creating a spreadsheet of various PA schools and their specific course and healthcare experience requirements in order to set my goals of what I want my PA school application to look like. Currently, I am scheduling my shadowing experience along with more Northside volunteering over this next summer, along with planning my sophomore year schedule around beginning undergrad research and getting my EMT certification through a program my university offers.
Whether you are currently in high school or just beginning college and pursuing a career that extends beyond undergrad, even though the application process may be a decently long time away, don’t feel discouraged about preparing for the application because of time. Instead of viewing the several years before applying as several years of waiting, view it as several years of preparing and pushing yourself to not only have the ideal application you want but also to become more experienced and ensured that this program is meant for you. It is always a great idea to get a head start and it is never too early to start working toward the career that is calling your name.
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