As my sophomore year of college came closer to an end, I began eagerly planning out what my upcoming summer would consist of. With my EMT course having been canceled in January, I ultimately decided to sign up for the class offered during the summer. Along with this, I also decided to begin my work in my research lab over the summer through participating in a Summer Scholars Program offered by my University where undergraduate students work in research throughout the summer and present it at the end to the entire program.
As a general overview, my research primarily consists of trying to delete a specific transcription factor within a pathway involved in early microglial cell recruitment to glioblastoma tumors.
During the summer, my schedule quickly got busy as I spent most of the weekdays working in lab and my weekends going to EMT class and clinicals. I was gaining knowledge about both fields faster than I imagined and started to become more confident within both areas quicker than I expected. Although my summer was extremely busy and left little time for relaxation, I learned so much and gained a lot of hands-on experience in the lab and EMT field of work. Not only did this busy time period strengthen my knowledge within my research project, but also further confirmed my desire to explore the Emergency Medicine specialty.
Going into junior year, I was extremely excited to continue my research and EMT course, along with finding a PA to shadow with my EMT instructor’s help. While each of these things were great opportunities for me and helped me feel that I am finally starting to fulfill some of the requirements for applications to PA school, I soon learned I needed to more importantly do was manage my time properly. Due to all these extracurriculars occurring at the same time as a full schedule of classes, I began to struggle to keep up with my schoolwork and getting the grades I wanted. I continued with this schedule longer than I should have hoping I would figure it out but ended up realizing I needed to work on my time management.
As the semester ended and Christmas break commenced, I had a lot of self-reflection on the previous semester and the struggles I faced with improper time management. I decided to pause on shadowing and continue it within the next summer and passed my EMT boards to have this certification moving forward. I planned out my following spring semester with a lighter load of courses to make up for the previous semester and learned from my mistake of improper time management.
As the spring semester began, I continued with my research lab and planned on attending a conference to present my work at. This conference was for the Association of Southern Biologists, and I was presenting through Tri Beta Honors Society in Little Rock, Arkansas. The semester school-wise was a great improvement in not only grades but also learning how to properly balance my research lab and time with friends well with coursework. This semester also provided me with improvement within my presentation skills due to my research conference in Little Rock being a poster presentation for a 4 hour time period.
Going into the summer, it has been booked with finishing shadowing a couple Pas in the Emergency Room and adding onto my volunteer hours. With this next year being my last before I start applying to PA schools, I am planning on continuing to keep good time management along with confidence in my preparation as the application start date approaches.
Overall, this past year has been filled with learning experiences and growth. Between finding opportunities to fulfill various areas of the PA school application and figuring out how to manage them with a full load of classes, this year has pushed me and allowed for me to grow in many ways personally and within my application. Even though completing the various areas of the application can be very exciting and intriguing, it is important to ensure you are prioritizing schoolwork as well and ensuring you give yourself a proper amount of time for studying and homework, because having good time management will be a great skill to attain when entering PA school!
Read Ashley’s Prepping for PA School Applications as a Freshman blog post here!
