Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Program Student News/Profiles Emmanuel Henry-Ajudua "It's a very friendly environment. The professors push you to be the best you can be, especially academically. They don't limit everything to the classroom. They're interested in your personal life and how you're coping with the stress of school." Read Emmanuel's Story Frederick Okoye III "My experience was very positive at Drexel. The faculty was really supportive and I had a really good relationship with Dr. Gaurnier-Hausser, my professors, and most of the graduate school. I’m grateful for the confidence they instilled in me." Read Frederick's Story Rody Alexis, IHS "Rising Star" Spring 2018 "What I really like about the Interdepartmental Health Sciences program is that it promotes this type of collaboration. Interdepartmental Health Sciences accepts students with different career interests and backgrounds, and allows them to work together." Read Rody's Story Alaina Turchi, IHS "Rising Star" Fall 2017 "The Interdisciplinary Health Sciences program has helped me so much and not only improved my scientific knowledge but exposed me to the field of medicine as a whole. There are so many people willing to help you succeed here, that it’s a disadvantage if you do not use them, whether it be Dr. Anita Gaurnier-Hausser and Matt Sanuck, or the professors of specific classes." Read Alaina's Story Antoinette Bell "The professors were the best part of the IHS program. They were very supportive, and I could tell they genuinely cared about our future. They weren’t just there to teach us and go home. They asked questions about our goals, and they helped guide us toward reaching our aspirations." Read Antoinette's Story Melissa Urquhart, IHS "Rising Star" Spring 2017 "The IHS program gave me the opportunity and flexibility to take classes that I am interested in and provided me the chance to figure out what I truly want to do. It gave me the ability to shadow more people in different fields and offered me more experiences. I was able to shadow a neuropsychologist and a neurologist at Drexel and a neurologist at Jefferson Hospital. My experiences in the program led me to make the final decision to pursue medicine. This program has helped build my confidence with my success in graduate level classes. This success helped me realize that I can go to medical school and perform well in those classes." Read Melissa's Story Michael Cruz "There’s a lot of collaboration here, and that’s kind of amazing when you consider that it’s a graduate school in a big city. You’re not all living in the same area and you’re not all on the same schedule, but as we settled in, it was a very collaborative environment. There’s a great sense of community in the program and that was great because in the health care profession you’re rarely, if ever, working on your own; you have to work with people in teams, so it was helpful to learn the curriculum that way. There is also a new mentorship program that was started by classmates of mine. This program has also helped strengthen the collaboration and facilitated the transition into our program. First-year students can sign up by providing their name, phone number and academic/career interests with the goal of being paired with a second-year student." Read Michael's Story David Dugue, IHS "Rising Star" Fall 2016 "My mom was a single mom who was always working, so I did not see her much growing up. My aunt helped take care of me and she was sick with multiple sclerosis. I always wanted to make her better, but had no way to do so. My aunt and her disease sparked my first interest in medicine. In addition, my mother, aunt and godmother are all nurses so I grew up with a lot of exposure to the health care field." Read David's Story Robert Charles Barton II "I always knew I wanted a career that married my passion for helping people and challenged my analytical skill. Toward the end of high school, I started making a list of careers that would allow me to do that, but I always went back to medicine. After I arrived at Drexel, I shadowed doctors in different specialties and that reinforced my decision to pursue a career as a physician." Read Robert's Story