Nathaniel Alston Student Achievement Scholarship Award

Hey Students, Wouldn’t it be nice to have $2000 to apply towards your educational expenses?

To be recognized for your student accomplishments?

To set a shining example for your peers?

If the answer to any of these questions is YES!, then I encourage you to apply for the Nathaniel Alston Student Achievement Award. Each year the PSPA honors PA student winners at their Annual Conference.

Oh… and did I mention that the three winners of the essay contest will be presented with a $2000 honorarium.

Applying is easy. See details in the information that follows this notice.

Good luck to all who apply!

Sincerely yours,

Helen O. Hiserman, MHP, PA-C

Awards Chair

Everything is out there waiting for you. Everything you want also wants you. But you have to take action to get it.

Pierre-Jules Renard, French author

To All PA Students:

The PSPA is pleased to announce the Nathaniel Alston Student Achievement Scholarship Award. This award has been established by the PSPA to recognize students who have demonstrated the highest standards of the PA profession through their experience and knowledge by promoting goodwill, public recognition and professional development of the PA profession. An award of $2000 will be presented to three PA students. These awards will be selected on a competitive basis. Each student applicant will be competing against other student applicants from their respective PA Programs in Pennsylvania. The applicants’ essays will be judged by the members of the PSPA Awards Committee. More than one student from each program may be among the winners. The awards will be presented during the Student Challenge Bowl at the Annual PSPA Fall CME Conference. Selected students are expected to attend the banquet and receive their award in person.

Eligibility Requirements:

• At the time of the application and at the time of the award presentation (during the fall PSPA Conference):
  • The student must be a member of the PSPA.
  • The student must submit documentation from their physician associate program with their application/essay that they have maintained good standing with this program, including meeting academic performance and satisfactory progress requirements as laid out by the program’s policies and procedures.
• A maximum 750-word essay typed and double-spaced in Microsoft Word format.
• For all essays, client/patient encounters should be identified by initials only in an effort to protect patients’ confidentiality. Quotes and excerpts from written documents can be used, but must be credited appropriately.
• The student must be a graduate PA student or in your professional phase of your PA program. The essay submission must reflect an experience during your graduate portion of your education.
• A student may apply a second time (the following year) during the graduate portion of the PA Program as long as above eligibility requirements are in place. The second application essay MUST address a different prompt/topic to be considered.  A student may be a winner ONE time only.

Choose one topic from the three choices below.

1. What role does community service in medicine play in promoting the PA profession? If noting a personal experience, it needs to be during your PA training.

2. Provide an experience during your PA training, perhaps a patient you interacted with, a project you were involved in, or an educational experience and how this will affect how you will practice in the PA profession.

3. Provide a patient encounter that occurred during your PA training which presented a moral/ethical dilemma in medical practice and how you would approach the issue/issues.

Quotes and excerpts from written documents can be used, but must be credited appropriately.

Applying is easy. E-mail in your essay to hiserman88@gmail.com . Make sure to include your name, address, email, PSPA number, PA program and anticipated date of graduation in the body of the e-mail.

Applications for the Nathaniel Alston Student Achievement Award are accepted NOW through June 30.