Augusta University’s Department of Allied Health Professions hosted a celebratory ceremony on Saturday, April 27, for professors and families to recognize students’ successful advancement.
After an intense year of exams, research and laboratory procedures, students from AU’s radiation therapy, clinical laboratory sciences and nuclear medicine technology program participated in a pinning ceremony to mark the end of their two years in their respective bachelor programs.
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Following two years of multiple science and health centered prerequisite classes, students will spend their senior year completing internships in hospitals and clinics to gain real-world experience before graduating.
Prior to pinning students in their white coats, the Department of Allied Health Professions’ Chair Gregory Passmore announced several students awards for excellence and welcomed back successful alumni.
Awards included: the Dr. Walter L. Shepherd Achievement Award, the Shaikh Chemistry Award, the Antonio Molini Foundation AU Student Achievement Award, the JRCERT Certificate of Excellence Award, the Cecil H. Hall Chair’s Award and the Alpha Eta Leadership Scholarship Award.
“This is a great opportunity to share with the families what the students have been doing. The students have over 1,000 hours spent in clinics during the five semesters that they are with us,” Passmore said. “So we try to get the parents to understand what a real success this is for students … and it’s to share how proud we are.”
Speaking from personal experience in the field, the College of Allied Health Sciences’ Dean Lester Pretlow advised students to remember their time at Augusta University and to continue making great choices as they venture into their final year of college.
“We’re very happy that you all are making this cross over into the health professional land,” he said. “… in life, it only takes a few good choices to establish your life – just a few to make a huge difference.”
Pretlow said his great choices included attending graduate school, spending some time serving in the army and marrying his loving wife.
Within his speech, Pretlow also said he hoped his students remember that things “end better than they start,” because keeping one’s end goal in mind can lead to great success.
“You never know what’s going to happen or how it’s going to end,” he said. “Concentrate on how things end and how you want to leave something. What is the impression that you want to leave wherever you go?”
Commemorating almost 40 future healthcare professionals, Passmore and Pretlow then presented students with special keepsake pins to acknowledge the significance of their academic accomplishments as they each step further into their professional endeavors.
“It’s very rewarding, for me personally, to see them all succeed and I think that’s what it’s all about for us,” Passmore said.
After students received their pins and posed for class photos, Pretlow congratulated all and said each should remember that working in healthcare is a privilege and an honor.
“I really just want the students to keep a spirit of helping and a spirit of compassion,” he said. “I want them to keep that spirit of contributing to the people of Georgia and to people nationally wherever they work. I mean that’s what we all need to do – we need to look out for one another.”
Attending father Eashir Aden, who’s son Jabril always wanted to work in the scientific field, said he was incredibly proud to celebrate his son’s academic success at AU, and he deeply appreciated the university’s caring and knowledgeable staff.
“I graduated within the same field, so I’m very proud to see him follow in my footsteps,” he said. “When he was young, I took him to the laboratory and he had a lot of exposure to it … the field is so huge and I think he will have a good and successful future.”
With a deep love of science and completing internships since high school, Aden said he was looking forward to witnessing his son further excel in his natural element.
Participating senior student, Taylor Moosman, said she was ecstatic to celebrate her completion of the grueling academic portion of the Clinical Laboratory Sciences program, and she hoped to stay in close touch with her classmates as they headed their separate ways.
“I’m really happy. It was a lot of work, but we got it all done,” she said. “My favorite memory was being in Mr. [Brett] Rice’s class and learning hematology. It was really fun and he made it very hands-on.”
Moosman, who is going to be working within the Wellstar MCG hospital, also said she was going to greatly miss the professors because they act as encouraging mentors as well as supportive instructors.
Allied Health student Kayla Waters said she was looking forward to further expanding her healthcare knowledge as she starts a job at Augusta’s Piedmont Hospital.
“I’m very excited. I feel relieved to be done with finals next week,” she said. “I’m looking forward to getting some real lab experience to put the stuff I’ve been learning into actual practice.”
Through her years at college, Waters said her favorite memory with AU had to be the white coat ceremony at the beginning of her first semester in the Clinical Laboratory Sciences program.
“It was nice to have that coming together moment,” she said. “… I hope we can all stay together, and I know that we’re all going to do great things.”
