James July-August 2024 web - Flipbook - Page 29
FIFTY-NINE STUDENTS received
degrees during PCOM South Georgia’s commencement ceremony on
Thursday, May 16, held at the University of Georgia Conference Center in
Tifton. Fifty students made up the
second class to receive the Doctor of
Osteopathic Medicine degree, and
nine students were in the third class
to receive the Master of Science in
Biomedical Sciences degree.
Macy Rowan is one of those DO
graduates— born and raised in the
South Georgia town of Valdosta.
“I grew up witnessing the challenges many South Georgians faced
by being rural and medically underserved,” she said. “When I heard a
medical school was opening here to
address these issues, I knew I wanted to be a part of it!”
Dr. Rowan’s desire to attend
PCOM South Georgia was because of
its location. She said, “I chose PCOM
South Georgia because it is close to
my hometown of Valdosta, Georgia,
and the school is embedded directly
in the heart of the region I’d like to
serve one day.”
Her decision to pursue osteopathic medicine came from the need
she saw in rural communities.
“Being particularly interested
in providing for rural, underserved
populations, I chose to pursue osteopathic medicine based on the holistic
approach this program endorses,”
Dr. Rowan said. “I knew underserved
populations needed this approach as
barriers to their healthcare went beyond the most obvious of access into
more intricate social determinants of
health, such as food insecurity and
health literacy.”
Dr. Rowan will complete her residency in family medicine at Georgia
South Graduate Medical Education
at Colquitt Regional Medical Center
in Moultrie and hopes to stay in the
South Georgia area long-term to
practice medicine.
PCOM opened with
the mission of educating
physicians to serve in
rural communities
like South Georgia
Ivanna Ward, DO, was born and
raised in Mobile, Alabama, and will
be taking her medical training to
underrepresented communities. Her
next chapter begins in Atlanta at
Morehouse School of Medicine as an
internal medicine resident.
“I wanted to become a physician
to provide equal opportunities for
those who have barriers to healthcare, whether those barriers are
money-related or access-related,” she
said. “My prayer is that one day I will
be able open and maintain clinics for
marginalized people.”
Hunter Medley, biomedical sciences graduate, began his healthcare
career as a patient care technician,
also known as a nurse assistant, in
a hospital. He was on the front lines
during the COVID pandemic and
said he chose the Master of Science
in Biomedical Sciences program to
build a better foundation to prepare
him for medical school.
“What made PCOM South Georgia stand out was the smaller size
of the school, allowing me to build
connections with the faculty and
staff here, and the ability to take
courses alongside medical students,” he said. “To sit in the same
classroom and be taught the same
thing as medical students gave me
the confidence that I could handle
medical school, and hopefully, it
showed admission committees that
I could handle medical school.”
PCOM South Georgia opened in
the fall of 2019 with the mission of
educating physicians to serve in rural
communities like South Georgia. The
campus is committed to educating
osteopathic medical students and biomedical sciences graduate students
in serving the healthcare needs of the
people in Georgia and the Southeast
by providing a program of medical
study guided by osteopathic medical tradition, concept and practice.
Graduates are encouraged to remain
in the Southeast and practice among
underserved populations where they
will have the most impact.
Shayla Jones is the marketing and communications intern for PCOM Georgia.
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