After a nationwide search for physician assistant graduate programs, Jeramiah Brown says the decision to come to PC was an easy one.
by Sarah Murphy
Jeramiah Brown knew he wanted to attend graduate school to become a physician assistant (PA). The problem was, he didn’t have many options to do so in his home state of Alaska.
After quickly realizing he would need to broaden his education search, Brown began looking at PA programs across the United States. He discovered the Presbyterian College Physician Assistant Program and was immediately drawn to the high-quality program in a rural, intimate campus setting—a setting similar to what he was familiar with in Alaska. He felt that learning to become a PA in such a setting would be helpful given his long term plans to practice medicine back home.
But what really sold Brown on PC was meeting the faculty and staff during his interview.
“They were all so excited and enthusiastic about me and the other students being there, and I could tell they wanted us to succeed and were going to do everything they could to help us achieve our goals of becoming PAs,” says Brown. “It was by far my favorite interview from my application process.”
Brown is a graduate of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), where he studied biological science with a concentration in biomedical science. As an undergraduate, he had the opportunity to participate in a variety of research projects and was a member of the Biomedical Learning and Student Training (BLaST) program, which provides connections between students and professors as they pursue research projects. His first lab project involved cancer lines and how they respond to certain radiation and other toxins.
“This research experience helped me understand how clinical research takes place, how to maintain cell lines, and how the scientific process works outside of the classroom,” says Brown.
Brown was also involved in a genetic research lab that worked with a device called the MinION sequencer.
“This device can take a sample and target certain DNA sequences, which is called adaptive sampling,” says Brown. “This is all very important because it can be used for pathogen tracking and genetic testing.” While there are other devices available, Brown and his team found the smaller, less expensive MinION to be just as effective, making it a more viable option across different settings.
Now in his first year of graduate school over 4,000 miles from home, Brown is enthusiastically applying his undergraduate experiences to his PA studies. While initially interested in orthopedics, his focus is now shifting towards cardiology after learning more about it at PC.
“I have always wanted to work in healthcare,” says Brown. “From a young age, my mother, who was a nurse, would take me to work sometimes, and I fell in love with the atmosphere and the ability to help people when they needed it.”
To learn more about the Presbyterian College Physician Assistant Graduate Program, visit the program website.
