Yale School of Medicine PA Online News

Almost everyone in Woolsey Hall was standing toward the end of the May 12 graduation ceremony for the Yale School of Medicine (YSM) Physician Assistant (PA) Online Program Class of 2023. This was not because the many family, friends, faculty, and staff present were giving the 80 graduates a standing ovation—though the audience’s pride was obvious from the abundant applause and cheers throughout the ceremony. Rather, it was because class president and cohort-elected graduation speaker Amelia Toomey, MMSc, had asked everyone present to stand and remain standing if they heard a statement that applied to someone they know, and then proceeded to read a series of statements [...]

Yale School of Medicine Physician Assistant (PA) Online student Brennon Taylor (Class of 2023) was one of 52 PA students awarded a scholarship from the PA Foundation in the 2022 application cycle. PA Foundation scholarships support PA students who “demonstrate a passion for the profession and healthcare-related community service.”

In 2018, during a helicopter medical transfer where he was the critical care flight paramedic, Jacob Riegelsberger came to a realization. He had been a paramedic for more than a decade, working in southern Texas.

Born and raised in Ecuador, Cyntia Andrade Santamaria was selected as one of three in her country for a grant designated to low-income students who had demonstrated leadership skills to attend college in the United States. The first in her family to receive a college degree, she was not sure what she wanted to study, but she had always enjoyed math, chemistry, and biology. One of her high school teachers suggested she go into engineering, and she thought she would give it a try.

In the maximum-security prison where Quita Griffith worked, it was common knowledge that being called to the chaplain’s office meant that someone had died. Griffith had moved to the US from Trinidad with aspirations to become “the greatest therapist in the world,” and she was following her passion working with individuals in corrections. But the prison system was its “own weird ecosystem,” she says.