Photo by InSoo Lee
By InSoo Lee
Staff Writer
On September 3 at 7:00 p.m. in Gailor Auditorium, the Sewanee Health Professions Society (SHPS) hosted a student panel to give advice to current first year students titled “What I Wish I Knew About Being a Pre-Health Student at Sewanee.” The panel was emceed by Cortez Brown (C’16) and Fridien Nana (C’17). On the student panel giving out advice was Abigail Bray, Caroline Flagler, Crystal Thompson-Brown, Jacob Zalewski (C16), Sarah Christie (C’16), and Elissa Clark (C’18). The panelists discussed personal stories of being a PreHealth student at Sewanee which included the good, the bad, and the ugly of the Pre-Health path and also explained what they wished they would have known when starting their journey. The panel started with stories of when they were freshman. As there were many different panelist, all had different stories. Some said their first year was easy, while some said the opposite. According to Flagler, she was “pushed outside of [her] comfort zone”. While all the panelist had different experiences, they all agreed that Professors wanted to help all students. Bray said, “Professors don’t want to see students fail. [They] want to help you.” Flagler, who had experience at a state school, reiterated on how the office hours Professor held were special. These professors not only help students out but want to give them opportunities. Emcee Nana talked about reaching out to Professor Kikis who is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Sewanee. Nana reached out to Professor Kikis about her research and ended up at having lunch at Stirling’s together. This lunch progressed to an internship for Nana helping Professor Kikis with research. With this story, all the panelists spoke on how special Sewanee is. Flagler touched on this by saying that “Sewanee gives you so many opportunities that are not elsewhere.” After the panel ended, Nana said “We hope that those who attend[ed] the event gained insight on what to expect as they embark their journey as prehealth students at Sewanee. Additionally, we hope that they take advantage of the numerous resources that are available.”