Hi my name is Tara Riley. I'm a senior
health science major with a Pre-PA minor.
I always knew that I wanted to go into the
health care field before entering
college but when I was looking at JMU,
looking at the programs offered, I
noticed the PA program, so I did a lot
more research into it and when I chose
the university I went to, JMU stood out
to me because they have a strong health
science undergraduate program with a
strong graduate PA program. So, once I was
a freshman at JMU, that was what I knew
my goal would be, to become a PA, and researching
the profession joining the pre-PA club
really solidified to me that that was
what I wanted to do. Health science has
prepared me for my future by offering
classes that encompass everything within
the healthcare field. Anything from
ethics to research methods, chronic
disease, it's all skills and knowledge
that I'll use in my future career.
Something fun that has really added to
my JMU experience is that I'm a volunteer
medical assistant in the health center. I
felt like it really got me a lot more
involved in the JMU community. I've
gotten to know the medical providers
there, the nurses, the other medical
assistants and learned a lot more about
healthcare being completely immersed
into it, and I'm also a patient care
technician at the local hospital in
Harrisonburg. So getting to be a part of
the Harrisonburg community outside of
JMU was something really special that
I didn't know that I was going to do
coming in to JMU but once I was involved
in that, I really liked getting to know
the other parts of Harrisonburg and the
people that live here
getting to work closely with them and
health care as well. My advice to any
freshman or senior in high school that's
entering the health science program is
to set those goals early, know what you
want to achieve, because when you set the
goals you've got something to work
towards the entire time that you're
within the program and you can really
see how the classes will relate to your
future career which helps so much with
motivation and it keeps you interested
in the classwork. Also go to your
professors, they're all here to help. The
JMU professors are some of the most supportive
 people, so I recommend going early
getting to know your professors and
having that kind of support too
throughout your experience in the health
science major.
