Currently, I am a second year graduate student in the Physician Assistant Program.  My journey at Quinnipiac began six years as an undergraduate in the Entry Level Masters Physician Assistant Program.  My goal then was to be a surgical physician assistant however my goal now has drastically changed.

Throughout my time here as an undergraduate and graduate student I have been shaped and molded into the person I am today by my professors.  My professors have guided and mentored me in and out of the classroom.  They have opened my eyes and provided me guidance; their guidance has led me down a very different path then I initially anticipated I would take.  Now, as I am in my final months in the physician assistant program I have two goals; one, work as a physician assistant in primary care in an underserved area and two, become at professor at Quinnipiac. 

Primary care in an underserved area is a complete 180 from surgery.  I started to realize how much I love working with the underserved community from all the community service we do as a program.  Some examples of what we do are; we feed the homeless men in New Haven, work with the Kidney Early Evaluation Program (KEEP), read to underprivileged children, do service work in the Dominican Republic and the list goes on and on.  Then, this past summer I worked in Bridgeport at a federal health clinic and my eyes were opened to an entire population I had never been exposed to.  Every day I went to work with a smile on my face and left with a bigger smile because I felt that I could actually make a difference.   

To me the professors and the atmosphere is what makes or breaks a school and Quinnipiac has both.  I can honestly not say enough how incredibly my journey has been here at QU and I hope my journey here is just beginning.

-Carly Arena

Carly graduated in 2009 from Quinnipiac University with an undergraduate degree in Health Science Studies. Subscribe to our feed for more posts from Carly!