What shifted Salina from premed to prePA
By Salina Sahawneh UA’26 and Jim Stellar
There is something we share. Both of us were biology premed until our last years of college when we switched. SS is going to PA and JS went to research. So, let’s hear first from SS.
I (SS) grew up always knowing I wanted to be a doctor. I don’t know what exactly it was about it to the field that drew me in, but it did. Growing up I also thought health care was limited to doctors or nurses (which is certainly not the case) but that’s how I thought as a child. After spending more time in hospital settings, around peers who also wanted to go into health care, and simply just growing up, I realized how many different routes people can go down and still be in contact with patients. Nonetheless, while my horizon broadened, my heart was still set on the MD path, or so I thought…
The summer after my 2nd year in college is when I started to get hesitant on the doctor journey. Did I really want to have to wait years before I could start treating patients? Did I really want to be stuck in one speciality for the rest of my life? Did I really want “Dr.” in front of my name? Everytime these thoughts came into my brain, I shut them down immediately and brushed them off as jitters. I even scheduled a date to take my MCAT, thinking it would ease my mind, yet it did the opposite. I spent that whole summer studying for the MCAT, and every time I would open my laptop, it never felt right. I kept going despite how I felt. I struggled with my feelings because I had committed to this path out loud to my family, friends, teachers, and coworkers for years, and I didn’t know how to explain that my goals had changed. I came to realize that I owe it to myself to do what truly makes me happy. Now I am here, about to graduate this Spring, and taking a gap year while I apply to Physician’s Assistant programs all over New York.
I (JS) was a dufus bio-premed major in college for 3 years. I say that even though I did not know it at the time. In some but in sort of a Freudian way, I think I liked the “bio-premend” answer to the question of what was your major … maybe because it ended the conversion. There was no follow-up and we just went on to the next issue, e.g. “Are you going to the concert tonight?” Also, I liked biology (always did) and was doing OK in my classes. I too scheduled a date for my MCAT test.
Then, as a bio major in my junior year, I took a course on the brain and behavior from a psychology professor. As I remember, he was the premedical club advisor at my small college. One day after a particularly interesting class of his, he asked me to speak with him. I was worried that I did something wrong. Instead he asked me, “Do you want to be a physician?” Before he could answer, he said, “Jim, you remember I am the premed club advisor. I notice that there you seem bored, but in my class you are always ‘on the edge of your seat’ and always asking me questions.” I remember saying, “Dr – – – -, what do I do.” He said “Do an internship in a neuroscience research laboratory this summer. And you better volunteer because you will never get one if you want to get paid.” I did. I fell in love with the field of neuroscience like I had never been in love with being a medical doctor. It is now a little more than 50 years later and it was the right move for me to go to graduate school.
In those years since JS was an undergraduate, much in the field of medicine and neuroscience research has changed. But the human brain has not evolved. SS and JS were (and are) using the same combination of neocortical thinking and planning and limbic-system feeling and valuing in making career decisions. Something about the experience of working in that lab for JS or the experience taking the MCAT test for SS had an unexpected consequence and unplanned consequence – a decision and a peacefulness in proceeding forward. So here is a question from JS to SS: What can we do in the college environment at a university like UAlbany to help students like you work through the decision of what to do with your career?
I (SS) think universities should definitely provide more hands-on career exploration. Here at UAlbany, we have a 1-credit course “freshman seminar” that helped introduce us to campus resources and ways to succeed academically, and the class was made up of pre-health students. Although I appreciated it, I think if this class included job shadowing, alumni networking, and career orientated workshops, this would make students more informed about their futures. We should have spent some time actually exploring these different career paths and understanding what these careers are really like. Some students come to college knowing exactly what they want to do, which is great! Others have no idea, and some think they know what they want but end up changing their mind, which is completely okay too! I also think that schools should do more to help students find opportunities such as shadowing, internships, or jobs that introduce them to their field, because this is something I struggled with myself, and I know other students do as well. It could be really difficult to find these opportunities on our own, especially if you do not already have connections.
