Providing a Path to Career Success I Agnes Scott’s graduate and post-baccalaureate programs offer academic solutions to help meet professional goals in the health sciences.
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t’s always a prerogative to change your mind about your career. But what if you have no science background and decide you want to become a doctor? Agnes Scott College can help. Ezra Adams PB ’15 earned both graduate and undergraduate degrees in music and worked in education for 12 years. Brynne Ridgewell PB ’21 graduated with degrees in African Studies and Global Health and then got a nursing degree. Christie Savas PB ’18 earned a degree in business and worked as a business consultant for several years. And then, at some point, these three decided to make a sharp turn in their career paths and become doctors. Adams, Ridgewell and Savas are just a few of the hundreds of individuals who have completed Agnes Scott College’s Post-Baccalaureate Pre-Medical (Post-Bacc Pre-Med) program on their way to medical school. For the last 26 years, Agnes Scott has offered a path for people who want to go to medical school through this program. The oldest one of its kind in Georgia, Agnes Scott’s Post-Bacc Pre-Med program is designed for students who took little or no pre-medical science courses in their undergraduate programs or those who completed these courses more than five years ago. During an intensive 12-month period, students immerse themselves in biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, physics and biochemistry. They are grouped in their own cohort—made up of about 30 students—and take introductory science classes that prepare them for medical school, as well as physician assistant, veterinary medicine, dentistry and related programs. “This program gives people who have changed their minds and want to change careers a path to pursue their dream of medical school,” says Mary Nell Higley ’01, director of the Post-Bacc Pre-Med program. “And because of that, we try to mimic the rigor of medical school. The material is challenging with the goal of preparing them for what’s ahead.” The Post-Bacc Pre-Med program began in 1995, when Agnes Scott alumnae who were thinking of applying to medical school asked if they could come back and take the introductory science classes they needed. As word got out, the number of post-baccalaureate students increased and the school decided to make it into its own program. One notable Agnes Scott alumna who completed the Post-Bacc Pre-Med program is Rebecca Sanders ’97, PB ’01, who had double majored in English and theatre at Agnes Scott. After graduation, she worked at the Santa Fe Opera and then Atlanta’s Seven Stages Theatre. But something was tugging at her. She’d always thought she wanted to be a doctor, but didn’t listen to that voice. Finally, she did. She returned to her alma mater, the place she loved, to start on a new career journey. She credits the Post-Bacc Pre-Med program with giving her the confidence to pursue that calling. “I wasn’t entirely confident I could do medical school,” says Sanders, who didn’t take a single science class in her undergraduate studies. “But
