Sarah So dreamt of a career in medicine for years.
A graduate of the University of Michigan with a degree in brain behavior and cognitive sciences, So, 25, of Queens, spent the last three years shadowing a neurosurgeon physician assistant — watching him perform surgeries in the operating room and then closely interact with patients — while working as a clinical research assistant at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
"That continuity of care he was able to provide intrigued me and brought up a lot of passion in me," she said.
That's when she knew that practicing medicine as a physician assistant was what she was meant to do for the rest of her life. Now she's one step closer to achieving that goal as one of 31 students in Weill Cornell Medical College's Master of Science in Health Sciences for Physician Assistants Program, Class of 2015.
Nearly 830 people applied for the graduate program's 31 slots, according to program administrators. The 27 women and four men who comprise the Class of 2015 have an overall grade point average of 3.67 and scored in the 70th percentile on the GRE. They hail from all corners of the country, including eight from New York state.
They gathered together March 18 at Weill Cornell, piling into Griffis Faculty Club with their families for their white coat ceremony — a milestone as much a culmination of the hard work it took to get to that moment as it was the start of a 26-month journey that will lead them to their professional careers in medicine.
"Today you turn the page to a new chapter in your professional careers and take on a unique commitment that few have the privilege of being a part of," said Christina Milizia, a physician assistant and instructor in the physician assistants program, as she addressed the Class of 2015 March 18. "Each of you should be feeling a great sense of pride today."
William Ameres, an instructor in Weill Cornell's physician assistant program, coats physician assistant student Michael Rachwalski.
She would know. It was just 12 years ago when she was in that room, receiving her white coat as a physician assistant student at Weill Cornell. Now she's passing on all that she learned to the next generation of medical professionals.
It's a passion Michael Rachwalski recently discovered after working on Wall Street as a financial analyst for several years. Inspired to pursue medicine by his wife, a nurse at Flushing Hospital Medical Center in Queens, Rachwalski became an emergency medical technician three years ago and observed physician assistants attend to sick and injured patients.
"I found I had a real passion for it and a desire to learn more," he said.
He quit his Wall Street job, enrolled at Weill Cornell's physician assistant program, and has never looked back.
"It's definitely an accomplishment," he said of receiving his white coat. "It's a huge responsibility. I don't know if I'm ready to take it on just yet, but I know after 26 months I will be."
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