{"id":11661,"date":"2024-11-22T09:15:56","date_gmt":"2024-11-22T15:15:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&p=11661"},"modified":"2024-11-22T09:15:56","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T15:15:56","slug":"high-aspirations-recent-grads-leverage-prehealth-courses-to-pursue-medical-careers","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/high-aspirations-recent-grads-leverage-prehealth-courses-to-pursue-medical-careers\/","title":{"rendered":"High aspirations: Recent grads leverage Prehealth courses to pursue medical careers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
Anna Brooks works on a research project in a UW-Stout lab. \/ UW-Stout<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2010 when the $43 million, gleaming Jarvis Hall Science Wing addition was dedicated at UW-Stout, Gov. Jim Doyle and others called it the finest science facility in the state.<\/p>\n

By at least one measure, the building with state-of-the-art lab equipment and classrooms is living up to its lofty billing: It has turned out dozens of graduates with a focus in\u00a0Prehealth Sciences<\/a>\u00a0who have gone on to successful careers in professional health fields, including as doctors, pharmacists, dentists, chiropractors and more in Wisconsin and beyond.<\/p>\n

Two recent graduates are beginning medical school this fall,\u00a0Anna Brooks\u00a0at the UW-Madison and\u00a0Olivier Charest\u00a0at the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec, Canada. \u201cI am extremely grateful for all the doors that Stout has opened for me,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cIt\u2019s an amazing place to go to college.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prehealth Sciences is a focus area that offers targeted preparation for admission to professional schools. It can be added to UW-Stout\u2019s preparatory bachelor\u2019s programs, including biology, chemistry, physics, applied science, biochemistry and molecular biology, and health, wellness and fitness. The programs provide students with lab-based classroom and research experiences, part of the\u00a0polytechnic advantage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Brooks and Charest were aiming for medical school all along, knowing Prehealth Sciences would put them on the right track. They appreciated the mentorship of professors like\u00a0Jim Burritt, Jen Grant and Dr. Alex Hall. Focused and inspired, they conducted research projects, mentored other students and were involved on campus and in the community, earning scholarships and awards and graduating with honors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe strength of UW Stout for Prehealth students is that not only do we have a lot of hands-on opportunities, but class sizes are small. Students really get to know their professors, who also really get to know them,\u201d Hall said. \u201cThis allows for a lot of collaboration, research opportunities and mentorship.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018This is exactly what I want to do\u2019<\/h3>\n

Brooks recalled one class where students worked on removing a gene from a strain of yeast and another in which they led their own project studying the impact of various medications on cancer cells that had been created in the lab by the professor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve heard from other students at big institutions who didn\u2019t have the hands-on research opportunities I had at Stout, like the\u00a0Cadaver Lab<\/a>,\u201d said Brooks, who loved the small class sizes and ability to work closely with her professors.<\/p>\n

Brooks, who was born in Ukraine<\/a>, graduated in May 2023 from UW-Stout in applied science then was chosen for a 10-week internship at UW Medical School Urology Lab. In 2022, she interned at the University of Washington Medical School.<\/p>\n

While applying to medical schools in 2023, she worked as a phlebotomist at Mayo Clinic Red Cedar in Menomonie. \u201cI witnessed the whole synergy of the team and what a physician does. It was a pleasure to see that kind of collaboration,\u201d she said. \u201cIt reassured me that this is exactly what I want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

She remembers the day in January when she received a call from a dean at UW-Madison telling her she\u2019d been accepted into the medical school, something she first considered as a 10-year-old while coming across a medical publication. She celebrated with her Mayo Red Cedar co-workers, exclaiming, \u201cI\u2019m going to be a doctor!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018The support is there and the equipment top notch\u2019<\/h3>\n

Charest, who graduated in applied science this past May, also was a Blue Devil athlete. He played hockey but saw his career derailed in his second season by a knee injury. He had other knee injuries going back to his high school days; one subsequent interaction with a physician who helped him avoid surgery with a knee strengthening program sparked an interest in medicine as a career.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I could have the same impact that doctor had on me, the empathy she had toward my situation, if I could add this to any patient I see on a daily basis that\u2019s what I\u2019m really looking forward to as a doctor. Most patients come in in a vulnerable position. I was able to be in the shoes of my future patients,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Charest had a competitive internship in summer 2023, one of 18 chosen from 300 applicants, at the University of Rochester Medical School in Rochester, N.Y., focusing on pediatrics. \u201cI saw the research side and the clinical side. Being able to see what I\u2019ll do in the field was great,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While at UW-Stout, Charest became a certified nursing assistant and volunteered as a CNA in palliative care at Dove West Healthcare in Eau Claire and in the emergency department at Red Cedar Mayo. \u201cMany people believed in me and paved the way for me to succeed, so being able to have these opportunities meant the world to me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

His education at UW-Stout gave him the independence to explore opportunities in the labs and through research. \u201cThe program\u00a0teaches you a lot of qualities you need in the field and helps you grow a little faster. The support is there, and the equipment is top notch.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Prehealth Sciences to professionals<\/h3>\n

Charest and Brooks are excited to take the next step in their careers this fall. They will have four years of medical school, followed by a three- to seven-year residency, depending on the field of medicine they choose.<\/p>\n

The University of Sherbrooke, in Sherbrooke, Quebec, is about an hour\u2019s drive from the Montreal suburbs where Charest grew up. Brooks has moved to Madison with her husband, also a UW-Stout graduate.<\/p>\n

Another spring 2024 graduate,\u00a0Chaeyun Jung, began pharmacy school this fall at the University of Minnesota.<\/p>\n

December 2023 graduate\u00a0Henry Scheit\u00a0is attending St. Catherine University in St. Paul for the Doctor of Physical Therapy program.<\/p>\n

They add to an already long list of graduates in the past 15-plus years choosing a variety of health and medical fields. They include:<\/p>\n