 Having a strong statement personal statement. It's something where a lot of people a lot of schools are looking at because You guys sit down and welcome back to my channel Thank you guys so much for joining me on this Sunday You could be doing anything else, but you chose to spend your Sunday morning with me I really appreciate you if you haven't already done so go ahead and subscribe and like this video and follow Me on Instagram at a down in the PA. I have a special guest with me you guys This is dr. Donnie R. He is the director of Howard's PA program, but I know him as Donnie. He's my friend He is the reason Kind of one of the reasons okay. God is the reason but Donnie Help me tremendously get into PA school. He wrote recommendation letters for me every year I did not get it And then the year that I did get it and I think that you know I'm really grateful to him for that so Donnie is gonna be sharing some of his tips and advice on how you can prepare yourself to get Into PA school but before he does all of that. I want him to just kind of give you a little insight about himself outside of work outside of Howard outside of being a PA so Donnie take it away. Tell these people about yourself. Hi everyone. My name is Donnie art. Yes I'm a great friend of a Donna wrote every recommendation letter for her every year that she tried to get in didn't change much, but She got it. I got it So we met through we met at church And she found out that I was a PA and one thing I can say about it Donna. She persevered in everything She was aggressive and that's you know some tips. I'm gonna Talk about about being aggressive and how to do that but she was aggressive and Persevere and stay faithful to the cause of what she wanted to do to be a PA but a little bit about myself So from Louisiana originally Grambling Louisiana. So if you ever heard of Grammar State University, that's where I'm from didn't go there with the Oakwood Yes, college now. Oh cool university. I went to the university. Oh, see that's where I went Oh you because you know, we're a little bit better Whatever But yes, what the oakwood met my wife there So we have been married eleven years. I have three kids living Maryland now been here since 2008 I Outside of work love love love to play golf but tennis I cook Played a guitar great cook you guys Amazing cook. Yeah, he had actually at the one thing I remember he cooked these fajitas for us this one time It was so good Oh, yeah Thank you again, just these are things I like to do outside of work because you know When you find out Work can't consume you and overtake you and some things that you don't want to do So find some outlets and these are some of my Sounds good, I will keep that in mind when I graduate in a few short months and get my first job But before we get on to that I want Donnie to just kind of get on in what he was doing, which was giving you these tips So I'm gonna get up out of here I'm gonna give Donnie the the seat the hot seat to actually talk to you guys and let you know all of his Very very important tips that will help you all prepare for your PA school Journey in your pay school interview. So without further ado, here's Donnie Hello everyone, my name is Donnie Yard. I am the program director to Howard University PA program But what I'm here to talk to you about today is my tips not Advertise where anyone but my tips and my advice on how you Pre-PA student can strengthen your resume or your application itself or even just getting an interview because that is the first step It's getting that interview to get into PA school So what I'm gonna be talking about a couple of tips and things that I think will help put you above everyone else The first thing that I would like to say is When I went to PA school, it was a really big emphasis on Patient care experience Many people such as EMT the nurses looked at PA school as a second career So they had that health care experience that was needed and the reason they would like to have or like to see the health care Experiences because the PA school process is a really rapid pace and they want to be able to see that you as an individual Are knowledgeable of the health care field and how fast it will be going and be able to adapt to those changes quickly getting that health care experience where it's volunteer or It's paid is a big thing that you should do and try to Get accomplished before or while applying for PA school Another tip that I want to give to go back to all of this before all of this is There's a program online that actually has a comparison sheet And that way you can look at all the record Requirements and prerequisites that are needed for any school you want to go to so you can use their template Duke University PA program has that on their website Other schools may have it also, but it's an easy way to do a comparison and see what prerequisites you need How many the how many hours are needed? So that's a good way to help in your planning process of what schools you want to go to GRE a lot of places a lot of schools are looking for that as a requirement So if you feel that you're a poor test taker or standardized testing gives you some type of anxiety I would recommend you going to Going somewhere that will give you skills on helping you to take tests. That way your g re skeet g re scores can be Above the top and what they're looking for a lot of schools have a different minimum Don't have a minimum, but some most places will require Let's go to those prerequisites. That's another thing. They really need to be strong Alisa be a better as well a lot of places are looking for which gives you a GPA Minimum of a three point zero on a science-based scale and a lot of Schools are also looking for a G GPA of three point O above and overall courses So if you see that you've taken a prerequisite and you may have gotten to see but you want to help strengthen that GPA Go back and take it Go back and take that course learn from that and that will also help bring your GPA up That way you can be seen better Another tip that I would like to bring out to you is writing skills Having a strong Statement personal statement is something well a lot of people a lot of schools are looking at because that It's really hard to tell talk about someone or see someone on paper But when you can look at a narrative and that person is expressing themselves through that personal statement That is really really really I Tell you puts a lot of people above others are just from that personal statement. So Get some writing skills if you don't feel like you have a strong writing background Definitely definitely do that because it will help Strengthen your application and your personality overall So having that strong personal statement tells the the reader who you are and they in a sense get a way of knowing Who you are overall as a person and they're pretty much you're pretty much introducing yourself to individuals through paper So I would through writing so I would definitely definitely definitely strengthen my writing skills This tip that I would say is the most important tip of all Because This tip allows you to understand who and what a PA does With that being said I would recommend you shadow a PA in your community Whether they're in primary care. They're in emergency medicine. They're in surgery Whatever Healthcare feel they're in Shadow them that will you as an individual understand what a PA does our limitations Where we've come from as far as the history of a PA because a lot of people Do not as long as we've been around 50 years the part the profession is growing But still a lot of people do not know What a PA does or what our role is in healthcare? So if you could shadow a PA and strongly shadow a PA, you know a week or two Getting an idea of what that person does on a day-to-day basis in the healthcare system You will you will understand why it's important to do everything that I've said before, okay? There are a lot of people trying to get into PA schools now Studies show that it's harder to get into PA school than it is to medical school Because there are so many applicants out there. There's few scoot. There are few schools But they are growing almost over 230 schools again mine being one that is trying to come back So I hope you all out there trying to support Howard because there's some more information coming to that But we are in the process of trying to get our program back as well If you can do this I recommend it if it's only if you can what I'm saying Don't put all your eggs in one basket be willing to venture out to other schools locations And again, I say this if you can not everyone can do that. Not everyone has the Ability to just pick up and leave and go you have families you have Relationships so those are things that may keep you into one location that you'll be looking for But if you can venture out to other schools I myself I went to school in New York And I'm from Louisiana and when I say there was a culture shock But I'm glad I went because I as a person grew up. I learned about culture. I learned about other ethnicities so that in itself helped me and prepared me for PA school because Everybody that you treat will not look like you So being able to venture out and be able to pick up and go and applying to other schools That are outside of your comfort zone That's another tip that I would put out because it increases your chances also My people out there. I did have one question for you because I get this question a lot I know that one of your most important tips was shadowing a PA But from what I've heard it's hard to shadow a PA. So what do you suggest? You know people who are having a hard time finding a PA to shadow do that's Something I would do is I'm pretty sure you may know people Who may know of PA in a different location? So if you're willing to travel to a friend's location, or if you know someone who's gotten into PA school They may know some PA's as well. If she have to be willing to travel Something that I did I was in Alabama and I found a friend of mine who knew a PA in California And I went so It's it's so he's talking about really travel not like you just go in 30 minutes Outside of your radius like you're willing to fly out for a week or two weeks to actually Make the sacrifice because this is what you want to do exactly and when people show that that hey You go to an interview and like listen, I want to be a PA so bad. I traveled 400 miles I got on the plane People look at them like wow So I would encourage you not to let that be a stumbling block, but you probably have to just venture out a little bit I'm pretty sure they're I'm not pretty sure. I know there are a lot of blogs a lot of Social media websites where you can find out where other PA's may be but I would not limit myself to system Oh wait, there's no one in my area letting it be a hindrance try to find somebody I really like that because I mean I'd never know what to tell people I'm like check LinkedIn There's anybody in your area, but that is actually I mean, you know If you know somebody out across country, you got to do what you have to do if you really want to be a PA So thank you for that. That's I learned something new. So hopefully this was a blessing to you guys You guys take these tips to heart You do your research on the schools and you actually like go through with some of these tips that don't you said Make sure that you are Actually aggressive and go after getting those shadowing hours Again, I just cannot thank you enough for doing this I know that this is gonna be very helpful to those looking forward to being a PA And hopefully some of you will apply to Howard's program When more information comes out about that, okay, so thank you again, Donnie so much for doing this I really appreciate it if you guys have not seen any of my other videos Go ahead and take a look around my channel if you like what you see go ahead and subscribe like this video Yes, they have to like this video right now Comment down below with any questions that you may have about For Donnie can go ahead and follow me on Instagram at Adana the PA. Thank you guys so much for watching I will talk to you guys next time