Last Chance to Win a $2500 Scholarship!

AAPA is now accepting manuscripts reporting on the following topic: What technology will impact the way Pathologists’ Assistants perform their duties? Submissions are due May 1. Click here for eligibility, rules & regulations, and to submit your manuscript.

Need inspiration? Below, past General Educational Scholarship winner Katherine Owen explains how submitting for and winning this scholarship was a meaningful experience for her after a career change into the PA profession.

Name: Katherine Owen School: University of Maryland (UMB) Pathologists’ Assistant Program Winning Manuscript: Paratesticular Embryonal Rhabdomyosarcoma in a Juvenile Patient: A Case Study Featured in: The Cutting Edge Issue 1 2018

“When I decided to participate in the AAPA Student Educational Scholarship contest, winning $2500 wasn’t the first reason why. Having arrived at UMB’s PA program following a career change, I was really seeking to stop the nagging, itchy little doubt that I didn’t belong. And, honestly, completing my manuscript didn’t miraculously or immediately grant me awesome clarity or super intelligence. But, here’s what happened along the way:

• I started thinking grossly (about margins and inking and appropriate sections) before my rotation year.
  
• Histology, immunohistochemistry, and molecular considerations became less daunting, less abstract, once I applied them to a real case and saw their vital place in patient care.
  
• I interacted with attending and resident pathologists and got to know them as not just my lecturers, but also as the people who would become my peers, colleagues, and supervisors.
  
• I lost my fear of asking stupid questions, figured out which were the right questions, and learned to connect a thought to its logical conclusion (sometimes without anyone to help me!).
  
• The bunch of facts, definitions, random mnemonics I could (sometimes!) recall on exam days? They were making sense in the bigger picture, and I found I could speak quite adeptly about my paper, the background material, and how it related to what I was studying in classes at the time.
  
• I got to see my name in print in my new field for the first time, made the first steps to building a lifelong relationship with the AAPA, and watched much of that nagging doubt fade away.

I suppose what I am advocating here is that stepping outside the classroom, the memorizing, and the test taking, into the real world of pathology, is an important way to wake up to the real meat of our profession. I encourage all of you to explore the interconnections between departments and disciplines, seek out the numerous exceptional, curious minds that are always willing to collaborate, and do the hands-on work that connects us to something bigger than ourselves.“

Ready to apply? Click here to submit your manuscript.

P.S. Don’t forget that you can also apply for a Non-Delegate Student Travel Grant through June 1!

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