优秀学生曼迪Moghadass

你是怎么知道太平洋航空公司的?

Pacific reached out to me because they thought I would thrive in their program. 我对此做了更多的研究, and I actually applied to be a biological sciences major or a health, 运动与运动科学(HESP)专业. I ended up getting into HESP and it worked out a lot better.

What helped you to make the decision to study at Pacific?

I think the main thing that helped me was the Tiger Day [open house] in 2019. 我参观了校园，还见到了博士. 马克·范内斯和几个学生. 他们告诉了我们很多关于这个项目的事情. One of the students was actually going to a physician assistant (PA) school. 这对我帮助很大, because I also want to go to a PA school and become a physician assistant who works with a team of doctors and nurses to provide health care for their patients. 

The smaller classroom sizes and just a smaller campus also helped a lot to with my decision, because the other universities that I was looking at had about 40,000-50,000名学生. I also like how Pacific looks like an East Coast school, but it's on the West Coast so it's not too far away for me and without the cold and wet.

是什么激发了你对HESP的兴趣?

我在填写正规博彩十大网站申请表的时候, I was looking at the website for the different majors that I could do, because for a PA school it's good to have a science degree, 不管是生物学还是运动学之类的. 我看了更多的HESP课程, 这是人体运动学, 运动生理学, 营养之类的东西. Those classes would be better for a PA school and sounded more fun than the microbiology or ecology I would have to take as a biology major.

What hands-on opportunities does the HESP program offer?

This major has a lot of hands-on work and even in the very first class you take, 运动生理学, 你做了很多动手的实验工作. You're learning how to take blood pressure with the blood pressure cuff. You get to actually observe clinicians such as a physical therapist, 职业治疗师, 医生或脊椎按摩师. 所以，在这个领域有很多事情要做. 

你可以选修. 例如, I’m taking biomechanics where we're going to be doing a lot of work with the Proteus machine used in occupational therapy.

Tell us about your own experiential learning at Pacific.

So, I actually just came from my clinic at the outpatient therapy at the Dignity Health’s St. 斯托克顿的约瑟夫医院. I’m observing 职业治疗师 for one of my classes because I’m also interested in occupational therapy (OT). It's a course requirement at Pacific to get 75 observation hours. I’m lucky that the clinician that I observe is kind to let me do more hands-on activities, like helping with setting up and cleaning the equipment.

你是怎么找到这个观察机会的?

我去找了医生. Peg Ciccolella and I asked where I could get observational hours done for the class and she put me in contact with someone over at the St. 约瑟的医院. It was lucky that I was one of the first students to email the clinician, so she said “Yes.“那是上学期的事了, so I’ve just been developing a relationship with her over these few months.

Are there any student organizations on campus which help you get career-ready?

I’m the secretary for the Pre-PA Society where we provide our members with information and resources to get ready for a PA school. For example, we practice suturing skills with suture surgical kits. 我们会讨论申请私人助理学校之类的事情. We actually had two people from Pacific’s Sacramento PA school speak to us over Zoom. ,最近, my professional fraternity Phi Epsilon Kappa had a PA student from Stanford speak to us and that helped a lot in terms of thinking about my career. 

I’m also in the Success TRiO club at Pacific for first-generation and underrepresented college students or college students who have disabilities (have Type 1 diabetes). They do a lot of workshops on things like how to set up student loan payments and they provide a lot of resources, like study groups and a lot of scholarship opportunities pop up.

我的意思是, if you would have told me when I was still a senior in high school, that I’d be a part of these clubs and organizations and getting actual experience in the field, 我还以为你疯了. I’d have thought, those chances happen only at a big school.

在你看来，太平洋的突出之处是什么?

I think it's just the sense of community and family that you build here. 特别是在HESP部门, we’re in one building close together and we get to know each other better. We're just helping each other with our experiences and the professors help a lot, too. 他们是我们的头号支持者.

I think one memory that will stay with me forever is when we came back onto campus after something like three semesters on Zoom. Just being able to see everyone again and actually being in a classroom was so special. I’m appreciating the fact that I am able to go to an amazing school like Pacific and have amazing professors to teach me and be surrounded by amazing peers. That feeling of just walking into the Main Gym again after being away for so long is something I will always remember.

毕业后你有什么打算?

我肯定在调查太平洋公司 医师助理研究硕士 or 职业治疗博士 programs because I read a lot about them, and I know that they do give priority to Pacific alumni. But I’m also looking at international OT and PA schools, 比如在英国, 因为我有双重国籍.