Keep a journal. Starting today.

That's Nina's advice and it's the single most practical thing in this episode. Write down what happened at work - the patient who scared you, the moment something clicked, the shift that made you sure. Two years later when you're staring at a blank personal statement, you'll have material instead of a vague memory.

Nina is a first-year at Nova Southeastern in Fort Lauderdale, with a public health background. She talks about how that degree gave her a different lens than the standard bio major, and how she used it to stand out.

She's also honest about how hard PA school is, and about protecting your mental and physical health while you're in it. Skipping sleep and exercise to study more is not a strategy. It's a slow-motion problem.

And patient care hours did something for her beyond checking a box - they confirmed she actually wanted this. That's what they're for.

What we cover:

• A public health background as an application strength
• Journaling your experiences for a future personal statement
• What patient care hours are really telling you
• Networking your way into information and opportunities
• The academic pace of first year and how she keeps up
• Protecting your health when the program wants everything

Resources:

Free Personal Statement Worksheet: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-personal-statement-worksheet-download

Free Resume Download: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-resume-download

Free PA School Application Timeline: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-application-timeline

Pre-PA Counseling: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pre-pa-counseling

Mentioned in this episode:

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We're back today with an interview with Nina, a current PA student at Nova Southeastern in Fort Lauderdale with a background in public health.

Welcome to the Pre PA Club Podcast.

If you want to learn how to become a physician assistant, you're in the right place.

I'm your host, Savannah Perry.

Let's get to it.

Hey, guys.

Welcome to the Pre PA Club Podcast.

Thank you for joining me.

I'm your host, Savannah Perry, and if you can't tell, I'm a little stuffy right now.

So we'll keep this intro pretty brief as we get into today's episode.

A few things coming up just for.

You guys to know about.

Make sure you're following on social media or on our email list so that you don't miss out on our webinars and specials and all of the stuff we have planned for this cycle.

We'll share everything there and we try.

To keep that as up to date as possible.

So if you just look up the.

PA platform, you'll find us in all of those places.

So for today's episode, we do have an interview.

We have some of these that are going to be coming up that are.

From PA students, people who have been.

Accepted recently, more faculty, lots of really, really great information and insights that I think will be helpful for you.

But today we're hearing from Nina.

So Nina is currently a first year student at Nova Southeastern University, the Fort Lauderdale campus.

She did her bachelor's in Public health and then got a Master's in Public Health from the University of Miami.

And now she's working towards becoming a pa.

So we talk about what she feels.

Made her successful in her application process.

We talk about life as a PA student and get into a lot of really good stuff.

So I think you're going to enjoy this episode.

So we'll hear from Nina and if you have any questions, any ideas for episodes, let us know.

As always, you can leave a voicemail for the podcast, so we'll put that link in the description.

If you'd like to leave us a voicemail.

We would love to hear from you and plan some episodes around the questions that you have, but we'll jump into hearing from Nina.

Well, my name is Nina Wojdowitz.

I am 25 years old and I am a current first year PA student at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale.

I'm originally from Chicago, but I came to the University of Miami where I received my Bachelor in Public Health as well as my Master of Public Health.

And my research for my Master's included sexual health promotion and disease prevention.

And my experience for school included a scribe and a medical assistant in vascular surgery.

And here I am trying to merge the two worlds together and try to start a career for myself.

Cool.

Yeah, I definitely want to hear more kind of about your background and how you got into some of that when you went into school.

School.

Were you pre PA or is that something you kind of figured out along the way?

So fortunately, I knew I wanted to become a P.A.

Okay.

Around the age of like 13, 14, high school, I didn't really stress about it, but college, I went to, um, and I figured I would find like, my minded students like myself, but there was actually no prepa club.

So then I took it upon myself to start it and, and it was a little rough in the beginning.

We had like five members.

But as the years went on and I got some help from.

From my other friends, I think it's thriving now.

I think it's over like 50 club members.

I'm still in touch with them.

We still do some Casper workshops together.

Happy Casper day.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, Today's the day.

So.

Yeah, that's been extremely rewarding.

And I love being able to connect with other prepaid students and helping them also achieve their dream of becoming a pa.

It's something I'm very passionate about.

That's cool.

I love that you took the initiative that, you know, there wasn't a club, there wasn't a group, and kind of made it happen.

So that can be.

Can be tough and, you know, trying to get the word out about it.

Yeah, no one knew.

No one knew.

None of my advisors, really.

Yeah, no one knew about the.

The pre pa, like, requirements, what was needed.

So freshman year, I just took it upon myself, did all the research, which is something I recommend doing.

You want to be a pa?

Yeah.

And sort of mapped out my classes and the best way to get there.

Yeah, that's just so interesting to me because I had a similar experience, but clearly I was an undergrad like 10 years ago, and my advisors didn't know anything.

There was a pre PA club, but it was very small.

And honestly, like, no one in there knew anything either.

Like, we were trying to figure it out.

And so I just really would have thought over time that would have gotten better and changed and schools would kind of, you know, embrace the PA profession and, and be a little bit more proactive about it.

But that's not uncommon.

Like, that's not an uncommon story to hear that there's still that kind of lack of knowledge.

And Florida's pretty PA friendly too.

Yeah, there's a lot of.

There's a lot of PA programs, so that's crazy.

And I mean, University of Miami, that's a big school.

Yeah, I know.

I was surprised myself.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We were all kind of in the same boat with.

With figuring it out together.

Yeah.

But hopefully the students have some sort of a track to go to.

Yeah.

Well, how did you know you wanted to be a so early?

Because that's pretty unique.

I just found out about the profession during my aunt's cancer treatments is when I really got interested into the healthcare field itself.

And I sort of discovered the profession and knew it was something for me.

I knew it was different.

I always like to do things that are different.

It wasn't the typical pre med route.

And most importantly, the reason why I chose a profession is just the lateral mobility aspect.

I'm someone I like a lot of different things and I couldn't imagine putting myself in a box with just one specialty.

I also believe in looking at the human body as a whole.

So, yeah, I just didn't want to put myself in a box and limit myself.

And I really want to be able to find my niche and deliver.

And doing the public health also helped me buy some time and also gave me some additional experience to be able to do that.

So that's what I'm interested in.

Because you knew you wanted to be a PA going into undergrad, so you kind of had an idea of what it took, what you needed to do and all of that.

Were you planning on getting a master's in public health regardless?

Like, was that something kind of on your radar or was that more strategic to help with PA school applications?

What.

You know, that's something I get a lot of questions about, which I don't have a background and I didn't do a Master's of Public health.

Um, I don't even know if our school offered like a public health degree when I was in school.

They do now and they have health promotions and all these really kind of cool majors.

But yeah.

Was that something that you just already had an interest in or you just felt it was like a good fit?

Kind of fit in with what you wanted to do.

How'd you end up there?

So I went into undergrad just with a basic biology.

What is it?

Just a basic biology degree.

And I knew you need to do all the science classes and you need to do physics, and physics isn't required for PA school.

And I just wanted to also just find something that really spoke to me and not just taking all these science classes, even though I do love biology.

I did take an intro to Public health class my freshman year where I just had the most phenomenal professor.

His name is Dr. Porter.

And I actually ended up doing my research with him for over four years.

So we have a really great relationship.

And he was really the one who made me fall in love with public health.

Not only was he just a great professor, he was really passionate.

And I realized it's just the perfect little mini intro or precursor to the healthcare profession.

You learn everything about health promotion and disease prevention.

You learn about risk factors, you get a little bit of snippets of each disease.

You get the more administrative background of things so you understand how clinical trials work.

You're able.

You take a lot of.

For my master's statistic classes.

So it just gives you that edge.

And you also do a lot of digging in medical literature, which just helps me stay up to date and use in practice evidence based medicine.

But how I ended up in my master's was I obviously switched my major immediately to the public health major, which was the best decision I've ever made.

And I think junior year, someone came into class promoting like a four plus one program that I wasn't aware that the school had.

And so you basically just took some extra year.

You took master's classes your senior year of undergrad, and then that way you just had to stay an extra year to finish out the degree.

And I figured I love public health, I'm so passionate about it, so.

And it would also buy me some more time to gain experience and to gain clinical hours.

So it's pretty much just an extra year of school.

But I figured that it was two birds, one stone.

Like I would be getting a master's degree, enjoying it, because it is something that I love at the same time, while buying myself more time to just get more patient care hours and just to add stuff to the resume to my application.

And then, yeah, I took a gap year after that.

A gap year.

I applied and waited the year to hear back, but that's when I worked as the medical assistant, which I also loved and which was eye opening.

But yeah, that's my experience in public health.

It is a great bridge.

Sorry, It's a great bridge.

Exactly.

I would recommend it to anyone.

Just like, yeah, I mean, there's a reason that PA schools have a combined MPH program.

And a lot of those things that you mentioned are things that you don't necessarily get in undergrad from a straight biology major, which is Interesting.

I mean, it's just so test based, that.

Yeah.

Then it's a little bit more.

When you're getting to PA school and it's the first time you're learning how to actually evaluate research papers and evidence based medicine and what that means and what's good evidence and bad evidence and how to actually interpret some of that stuff.

And so I think having that background is extremely helpful.

Absolutely.

Kind of gives you a leg up in those, those cases.

All right, so when you.

So you did your master's program, you decided to take a gap year.

Any regrets about your gap year?

Lots of regrets.

Highly recommend.

The thing I love also about the PA profession is the requirement for the patient care experience, because you really have to start from the ground up.

And it really, you know, it really teaches you whether you actually like this kind of stuff or not.

And you're not in it for the wrong reasons.

You're in it for the right reasons.

I loved interacting with my patients.

And even though what I was doing was intense work, I still enjoyed it every single day.

And I enjoyed the fact that I was.

That I was starting from the bottom and working my way up and earning that position.

Whereas I feel like with some other healthcare professions, you know, they think they want to do it, and then once they're out there in the fields and they really see what it is, they realize maybe it wasn't for them.

So that's something I actually like about.

You know, some people complain having to do those hours for PA school, but I actually think it's very smart and strategic on their part.

Yeah, I agree.

And taking a gap year, that's what I just asked.

I've never had anyone say that they regretted it.

Yeah, but, you know, people ask a lot, you know, should I do it?

Should I not?

But it gives you a lot of good, dedicated time to kind of get ready for PA school while you're applying.

What was your process in researching PA programs?

Did you kind of have your heart set on something or were you looking around for different stuff?

What was your kind of priority list?

So as I mentioned, right when I got into college, I immediately researched the schools I would be interested.

They were mostly Illinois schools since I was from Chicago, and then Florida schools since I was going to school down here.

But I did want to stay in Florida.

And so, yeah, I, like, looked up the different requirements.

You know, like, they all have their little special different requirements.

I made sure I fulfilled those requirements during my undergrad year.

And then when it came to actually applying, I just had to look sort of more at the detailed stuff.

Some.

Some schools already were requiring the PA Cat and not the gre, so those are automatically off my list.

In terms of.

Of choosing a school, I didn't have my heart set on anything.

I just wanted to get in.

But down here, Nova does have a very good reputation, and especially the location being in Fort Lauderdale, this is somewhere where I want to stay and spend the rest of my life.

So networking for me is very important reputation.

So when I go out on the rotations in August, hopefully I'll make some.

Some connections that are going to help me in the future.

Because from what I've heard, it doesn't really matter where you go to PA school.

It matters who you know, just kind of like in any other profession in this world.

So, yeah, that was.

That was my number one driver and motivator is to say somewhere local.

But I just wanted to get in and just go to PA school.

So how many schools did you apply to?

I applied to 12 schools.

Okay.

I remember listening to your podcast years ago, and I think you said the average applicant applies seven schools.

So I was like, let's kind of double that.

Let's double our chances.

I applied to 12 schools.

I interviewed at six, and then I got into three of them.

But I will say I did use the PA platform for, like, the.

The looking through my CASPL application and helping with my personal statement, and it was amazing.

And I also did the mock interviews with you guys, and so I recommend you to everyone, and it was actually a huge, huge, huge help getting into school.

Well, thank you for the recommendation.

Absolutely.

Happy to help.

But, you know, it's crazy when I work with people because I look at their application, I'm like, oh, my gosh, y' all are such good applicants.

Like, you don't need me.

You're gonna get in.

Right?

But it's just.

It's this.

I think it's just the process.

Like, there's so much involved.

Like, even when you've known it's what you want to do and you've researched, it's just a lot.

It's a lot of fun, and it helps to have that person who, like, has been through it to go through it with you and just double check everything with you, because it's.

It's nice to have friends and family, but they're like, you're gonna get in.

You'll be fine.

And I just remember how unhelpful I felt like that felt I was like, you don't know.

You don't Know what I'm going through.

No one gets it unless you're going through it, right?

Yep.

Yeah.

So I'm glad, glad we were able to help.

Absolutely.

Did.

Do you feel like your public health background, did that come up at all?

Do you think that was like a.

Something that made you stand out on your applications?

Yeah, absolutely.

So that's something I also recommend.

I, I like to mentor prepaid students through the pre club at UM and so that is something I recommend is just doing something that makes you stand out.

I do recommend being well rounded applicant as much as you can, you know, filling out all those categories in CASPA the best that you can.

But more importantly, it's just something that makes you stand out.

Especially now talking to the admissions director and him letting me know that.

So it is something that I do really recommend.

If it's.

You have another passion, I say go for it.

Because yeah, they don't want the cookie cutter stuff.

They really don't.

And they really, really look at your application as a whole.

So yeah, very happy that I did, did what I, what I did.

But it was also just, I was just following my gut and following my passion.

It wasn't like a strategy to get into PA school for.

You weren't just checking a box.

Exactly.

It just, it felt right and I enjoyed the process and here we are now.

So I feel like a lot of.

People get in the.

Mindset of feeling like they need to rush the process and feeling like I have to do all this stuff all at once.

I have to do my patient care while I'm getting my degree and I have to do XYZ and check the boxes and all this, which I get.

You know, we want to speed it up as much as possible, but in the long run, like you're probably looking at a one to two year difference that really isn't, isn't going to be, it's not going to have that big of an effect and it may have a more positive effect and make you a better PA student or a better PA if you just take that time and go a little bit more slowly.

But it's hard, it's hard to communicate that sometimes to people who are like, no, I want it now, like we gotta make this happen.

Like the way you did it was very smart and very well thought out and probably just showed a lot of maturity as an applicant to the programs, too.

Yeah, I try to.

Try to tell my mentees just to enjoy undergrad.

Like, enjoy your life.

Yeah.

And if it's meant to be, it'll be like, that's something.

Fortunately, I'm.

I'm good with is.

Is just letting the process take its course and just hanging out along for the ride.

Little.

Little patient there.

All right, so you said you got into three programs.

How did you decide between programs?

Just the location.

They were all.

Yeah, they're all South Florida programs.

And I chose the one closest to my new home for Lauderdale.

Nice.

Okay.

And then did you do anything to prepare before PA school?

No, and I don't recommend anyone does because there's nothing that's gonna.

Yeah,.

Enjoy your summer break.

Enjoy your gap year, whatever it is, because you are signing away your life for a solid 12 to 15 months.

And it was a very hard adjustment in the beginning.

I'm not going to lie.

Like, I just found my flow in January after starting last May.

Yeah.

And it really happened when I actually started prioritizing, like my mental and physical health.

Everything else seemed to follow after that.

And you just need to sort of surrender in the beginning.

You know, I just thought my old, like, undergrad habits would carry me through, but they absolutely don't.

And so the longer you fight that, the harder it's going to be.

So you just need to surrender and do a little bit each day.

Try not to procrastinate.

But.

Yeah, I'm also telling myself that right now.

Yeah, but you're already that 2% of students that applied and got in, like, you deserve to be there.

Like, they know you can handle it.

Yeah.

No need to prep and there's no need to stress during school.

Like, it's all going to work out.

No.

I would say if anything, kind of what you mentioned, like, one thing I wish I did was got into more of a routine, just like a self care routine before PA school, so that I could have maintained that more instead of the complete, like, relaxing and chilling that I did not.

Not a care in the world for a couple months.

I almost wish I had focus on like, okay, let me get like a routine going and then I can continue that and just go into PA school, which who knows if that would have worked.

Probably not, but it's a nice thought for me.

The COVID pandemic, actually.

At first I thought it would hurt me, but at the end it benefited me.

I was supposed to apply the year that Covid hit, but everything kind of, you know, I wasn't getting my hours anymore, I didn't shadow as much as I wanted to.

So I just kind of took that year to slow down and, and really up my mental and physical health and like build foundation.

And if it weren't for that, honestly like I would be off my rocker right now.

So, you know, like, everything happens for a reason.

I remember CASPL even had like a Covid paragraph.

Yeah.

Say, describing how it impacted your application process.

And so, you know, I just think it's all happening for a reason.

Yeah, you just have to hang in there, be flexible.

That's what I told you.

Like be flexible.

Exactly.

Yeah.

You have to be.

Well, how has PA school been so far?

Is it what you expected?

Is it harder?

Is it what, what have you found kind of to get you through didactic?

I didn't know what to expect, but it is harder than I expected but also more rewarding than I expected it to be.

You know, it's not nothing like my master's program.

My master's program is all busy work and papers and sitting at your computer, but now you're just in it and you just have to do a little bit every day.

Like I mentioned, it's, it's not for the faint hearted at all.

It's especially at nova, they, they hold us to a pretty high standard.

You know, there's a minimum requirement in your grades that you have to get and so it's a process but you learn to get through it.

You need a good support system otherwise you're not going to make it.

But yeah, I mean I've loved it so far.

I love learning about what I've waited my whole life to learn about and I can't wait for rotations to start where I can start applying it.

And yeah, I also just love the professors at NSU and, and their approach and also the diversity of classes that they offer.

Something that I was looking at schools like as much as they say an anatomy lab doesn't matter, for me it mattered.

And actually seeing the, the cadavers and the size of the organs and where they're placed and the layers of the tissue and muscle, it was very helpful.

I'm a very visual person.

So they also have like nutrition classes.

Like I mentioned before, I believe in the whole body approach, sort of more of like a holistic approach.

So I really appreciate their initiative and like the nutrition courses and the complementary medicine courses and, and they also have public health courses.

So I'm just excited.

I finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

But so far It's, It's.

I've amazed myself.

Yeah.

Is what I would say, like.

Yeah, it changes you as a person, but in the best way possible.

Yeah, it makes you figure a lot of stuff out pretty quickly and.

And it goes by very fast.

For sure.

Well, like thinking about kind of what you've done so far and then your background and kind of where you're going with clinicals and stuff.

Is there a specific area you see yourself ending up in as far as when you graduate and work as a pa?

Are you kind of open minded right now?

I'm open minded.

Like I said, I love the aspect that I can just change a specialty, but I am biased in the fact that I like vascular surgery, but interesting.

Yeah, I did work in IT for a few years and so either plastic surgery or vascular surgery, something along, along those lines.

But I think the surgical route for sure.

But we'll see patients, they're coming up.

My mind can always change.

Yeah.

See, See where you end up.

Well, I think, I think, you know, hearing your advice is very helpful and hopefully I think encourages people that are maybe trying to decide on their path or feeling overwhelmed by like trying to do everything right now that you can take a step back and just kind of take it one step at a time and you'll get there.

Like you said, like, it'll work out if it's meant to be.

And you had great success in your application cycle, which that says a lot about all the work you did and put in before you applied.

It does.

But there is one thing that I wish I did.

Oh, what is it?

Every prepa out there and it's to keep a journal.

Okay.

Of everything you do, log in.

You know, look at those Casper categories right now and log those hours for yourself.

Log every volunteering you did.

Because when, when the time comes.

I remember during my Casper application, I spent so much time and I applied late in the cycle.

I applied in like early June, I think late May, which is considered late, or at least I was told by the Summit admissions.

But anyway, I spent so much time digging up the addresses, the emails, the phone calls, and the names of the people that, you know, I did the volunteering with or the research with.

So the one thing that I wish I did is the second, you know, you want to become a pa, get a journal and write down everything you did.

I even wrote down the categories so that people can know.

But it includes any teaching experience, any shadowing experience, volunteering, leadership, healthcare, non healthcare work, as well as like awards, honors, publications, certifications.

Licenses.

Just write it all down.

Anything that you think is pertaining to the application process, like, just start researching it now and just write it down because it's going to save you so much time when it comes to the application process.

Yes, that is a great tip.

That's why I tell when I talk to prepay clubs, like, the people just starting out, like, the freshmen.

Like, yeah.

Like, after you shadow, like, right.

Like, make a note on your phone.

Like, do something like have a Google Doc.

Write it down where you have all of it.

Like, it gives you kind of that library to go back to, which helps with your application, but also your essays.

Because you'll be trying to think of patient encounters and what you've seen, and it is hard to just recall it.

It's been a while.

Yeah, it took a second.

So that's the one thing that I. I wish I did.

But yeah, that's great advice.

We will definitely pass that on and hopefully everyone takes all of your wonderful advice and takes it to heart and you'll have to update us on where you end up and what you end up doing.

I will.

And I would love to get involved with the PA platform one day as well.

Yes, we.

We would love to have you.

So, yeah, I'll, like, cut our recording there, but yeah, so that's what we're.

We're like, actually joining with this company that does, like, the same thing with med school.

Okay.

But they have a really cool software.

I'll probably talk about it, like, when I do the audio stuff, but it's.

It's similar.

Like, some people have used my PA box where it, like, you can record stuff, but this is a free version.

Like, it's completely free and they can, like, record their experiences and it, like, sends them prompts to, like, reflect on things.

And so it's.

I'm like, this is so helpful and would have been so great.

Oh, my gosh.

It kind of keeps that record.

So then when it's time to apply, you can just, like, download it and, like, put all your stuff in.

Love that.

Yeah.

So I'm hoping that'll be really helpful to people.

So.

Yeah.

But definitely, you know, once you get.

Get through it all, let me know and I'm sure we'll have a spot for you.

I'm so excited to have met you.

I've been listening, like, since the beginning.

Oh, I'm excited to bring the podcast back.

I. I took a break.

I've taken a break since about October and I've had a lot of people, like, especially recently being like, am I missing something?

Is it broken?

Like, I need.

Like, I want the podcast back.

So, so good.

I love everything you do.

It's truly amazing.

Time to bring it back.

I. I love it.

I mean, in another life, I would be an advisor.

I just, yeah, like, love getting in, like, the nitty gritty of figuring all this out.

And, like, I'm the same.

Making a plan.

Yeah.

My husband's like, you are so weird.

It's, like, not his thing.

But, yeah, it's.

It's fun.

And it is interesting to see, like, how.

How the applications have changed and PA schools changed, and then also how it hasn't, because it's still just such an involved process.

Totally.