In recent years, the Oklahoma Christian University college of natural sciences has been successful in the placement of over 90% of biology graduates into medical school and graduate school after graduation from Oklahoma Christian. Dr. Sara Alcon, chair of natural sciences and associate professor of biology, spoke about what sets Oklahoma Christian apart when it comes to preparation for post-graduate programs.
“So we have a 97% acceptance rate for medical school in the last five years, and we have a 93% acceptance rate for our healthcare and graduate schools combined… Philiatros, our pre-healthcare club, is really a huge portion of this success because some of the things that you need, no matter what it is, whether you’re going into medical school or dental school or PA PT, all of these different areas, you need to have not only a good GPA. If you have a 4.0 GPA, you and that’s all you have, you will not get in,” Alcon said. “What they are looking for is for your primary motivation to be to serve people and to help improve the health of people around you. So, one of the things that they look for is: Do you know what you’re getting into? The best way to show that you know what that means is to do shadowing, so that means following somebody around and being their shadow in their profession… Our students typically get somewhere between 40 and 100 hours worth of shadowing… obviously, they can’t serve as a medical professional yet because they have no medical professional license. But there are a lot of things that they can do, both within medical service and non-medical service projects, that can really help to increase their application. So, if they are medically related service projects, that’s even better,” she said. “One of the things that our science department does really, really well is it is absolutely possible to get an easier science degree somewhere else, but med school is still going to be just as hard. PT school is still going to be just as hard. So if you come to OC and you are a science major here or getting your prerequisites here for a healthcare school of some kind, you are going through a harder process. But with all of the support of the faculty, through office hours, we’re always available to help if you need help if you reach out to us. You have to choose to reach out to us, but we’re always available to help you when you get stuck. We have really good research-based teaching methods. Students may feel frustration with them to start, but it actually leads to long-term retention of the material,” said Alcon. “We have all the student success support that’s available as well, tutoring, academic coaching, all of the accommodations, and different things like that. We want you to succeed. That is one of the major differences between us and a very large school. Is that we really, really want you to succeed. It makes us sad when our students are not able to be as successful as they want to be, and we try to help them figure out ways to improve that. So you will experience a higher level of academic rigor that will train you in how to be successful in an academically rigorous class,” Alcon said.
The Oklahoma Christian college of natural sciences intentionally incorporates faith into everything they do to help guide students to identify and walk into the plans God has for them.
“There’s a sign in my office here that says, ‘Be who God meant you to be, and you will set the world on fire.’ And that is my personal motto. So, freshman science seminar is one of the classes that I teach, and so starting from the very beginning, first semester of your freshman year, if you’re here for the whole time, I really focus on helping students find the calling that God has given them… I want them to find the thing that they were called to be, not just feel like they have to do this in order to serve people or because they like science. – And that sounds a little bit weird to tell you about how our faith is super important to help you become a doctor by telling you how I help you become not a doctor – But in doing that, what that means is that the people who are wanting to do this are really wanting to do this, and then they create that support system around themselves that, like through Philiatros, that you aren’t the only one stuck studying. You have a support community around you to help you succeed in the classes that are genuinely very hard. You also have the motivation of knowing why you want to do this, and being willing to do the hard things in order to get there,” she said.
According to Alcon, the on campus pre-healthcare club called Philiatros is a large component of the department’s competitive acceptance rates into post-graduate programs.
“I am the sponsor of Philiatros. I have been for, I think about 10 years now… Philiatros is a club. I actually don’t know when it started. It was a club and had been a club for a very long time before I was a student in the early 2000s, and it has been a long, long-standing academic science pre-healthcare club,” said Alcon. “Philiatros is a relatively easy outlet for students to get the extracurricular things that they need. So that service component, they help arrange service projects. Students still have to participate in the service projects, but they help arrange the service projects. You need to have shadowing. Well, all of the PAs that come in, the PTs that come in, all of the other people, they’re coming on campus to spend an hour talking to Philiatros about this. So they are almost definitely willing to have you come and shadow them… It also allows people to be officers in the club, which gives leadership experience. Most of the students are going to be leaders in their healthcare teams because of the positions that they’re going into, and so leadership experience is something that is really important for students to get if they’re going into a healthcare school,” Alcon said.
Jack Lindley, a junior majoring in biology. Lindley spoke about the outstanding success of the Oklahoma Christian college of natural sciences and why he chose to continue his education at Oklahoma Christian.
“Originally, when I was in high school, I actually wasn’t planning to come to OC, but one of the things that the pre-med program here at OC advertises is that 95% of their students get into medical school, and then you compare that to places like state schools, whose acceptance rate into medical school is around 18% to 20%, so OC is really competitive, and so that’s part of the reason why I came to OC. And I guess you have to credit Philiatos for part of that because, like I said, it does give you that network to meet other doctors in the area, get you service events that go on your resume that you submit when you apply, and so I do think Philiatros does a really great job of preparing you, giving you the experiences that you need to be competitive when it comes down to applying,” said Lindley. “When I was a freshman, the juniors and seniors who were on the board of Philiatros came in to advertise their club, and then they talked about how it’d be a great way to get volunteer service events for your resume, so that you can get into medical school and other health professional programs after OC,” he said.
Lindley, member and officer for Philiatros, spoke about what the club means to him.
“I’d say its main purpose is to better prepare undergraduate students who are hoping to enter some sort of health career. While service is a component, we also have lecture nights, where we bring in health professionals such as doctors in the area, physical therapists, even OU med school, OSU vet school, different programs to come in and sort of talk to everybody. They share what it takes to get into the certain career that we’re all interested in. It’s also an opportunity for the students to make connections, get to know these doctors who could maybe one day write letters of recommendation. So all around, just help better prepare everybody for their career goals,” Lindley said. “For any people who are in the biology department, they should definitely consider joining because I think it’s possible, but it’s a lot harder to get the experiences needed. Medical school is really competitive, and so it’s really difficult to get all these experiences outside of an organized club. We’re trying to organize it for people, so they don’t have to go out and find it,” said Lindley.
As the medical services coordinator officer for Philiatros, Lindley is responsible for organizing service and exposure opportunities for the club.
“So it’s my job to plan medical related events for students to get volunteer hours or service experiences for their resume,” he said. “Our first event that I’ve planned will be this Saturday. It’s going to be in south Oklahoma City, helping out a pediatrics clinic called Hilltop. Hilltop is a charitable, faith-based clinic that serves really a lot of patients without insurance and people who are really in need on the south side of Oklahoma City. And there’s going to be a parade downtown there around the clinic, and they’ll have a booth set up. And so our job will be to help run the booth, set it up, clean it up when it’s done, and we’ll just be educating the community about Hilltop and passing out like merchandise and just helping them in any way that we can. The second one is the swab drive, which will be coming up in October, and we’ll probably have a booth in the area outside the Student Life office, and really our main goal is to get as many people to get swabbed as possible. And what the swabbing does is it collects stem cells, which are really important cells when it comes to curing disease because they can be transformed into any other type of cells. So they can sort of undo the damage that has occurred with specifically leukemia and blood cancer,” Lindley said.
Last year, Oklahoma Christian University was able to make eight life-saving donations as a result of the swab drive hosted by Philiatros. The Philiatros club is open to all Oklahoma Christian pre-health students.
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