Originally from Dallas, Texas, Stephen Rogers didn’t always plan to go to medical school. He thought he might go into forensic science, but a few volunteer experiences helped convince him that he wanted to take a more hands-on approach to helping people. Stephen got a great opportunity to work at a camp for children with special health needs in Charlottesville, Virginia, and that is where he first knew that he wanted to go into medicine. At 30 years old, he’s a little ahead of his classmates in age, but he believes his post-graduate experience has helped mold his career in medicine. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Virginia, Stephen spent some time in Australia training horses. When he returned, he completed research in sleep medicine and he went to graduate school at Drexel and finished his post-bacc master’s degree there. Prior to medical school, he also worked in a pediatrics office in Virginia. Stephen continues to appreciate all the clinical opportunities at Drexel. In addition to completing volunteer work, Stephen serves as co-chair of the Health Outreach Project clinics. In this role, he helps facilitate volunteer opportunities for students and faculty in several student-run clinics throughout Philadelphia. He also takes every opportunity he has to teach and he served as co-chair for the second year anatomy-tutoring program.

 Originally I was not thinking medicine. All through college I actually wanted to do forensic science. And then I ran a summer camp for kids with special health needs. I do remember every once in a while doing a wheelchair transfer, from a wheelchair to a canoe. Helping them in any way that I could really sparked my interest, and kept going from there.

 Personally I think Drexel has embraced my atypical path to school. A lot of people figure it out a lot sooner. I went to the University of Virginia for undergraduate, and I have a degree in physics from there. I kind of wanted to see the rest of the world a little bit, so I lived in Australia for a little while, and did some research work. So, because of that, I'm a little bit older for my class.

 My brother is a surgeon, and talking to him and figuring out exactly what he was doing and how he was learning really first piqued my interest. I decided to go pretty late in the process, and then finally started here in 2015. They've allowed me to build on what I've already had a few years off developing, and also allowed me to take the experience that I've had outside of school and mold it into what I want to do with medicine. Just started late, but I'm pretty happy with my decision to come.

 My acceptance here has allowed me to better connect with a wider range of students that I know will be important in the populations that I'm serving as a physician later on. 

 
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