This success represents neither a fluke nor a phenomenon. APU’s long-standing reputation for preparing some of the nation’s highest-qualified science graduate students dates back to the department’s inception and speaks to the faculty’s commitment to educating the whole person.
The best medical schools look for students who have demonstrated leadership and character, “and who have stretched themselves,” said Delores Brown, admissions dean at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. This could be holding elected school office or organizing community action, for example. Meanwhile, more applicants work or volunteer after completing undergraduate work, logging hours with government health agencies, fellowships, Teach for America, the Peace Corps, or Doctors Without Borders. Mastery of another skill, whether a sport, music, or research, becomes a plus. Interpersonal skills remain important, too, with schools parsing letters of recommendation for clues to an applicant’s communication skills.1
In this brief analysis, Brown describes the quintessential Azusa Pacific graduate and affirms the APU faculty’s approach to education-trading in traditional cut-throat techniques for a holistic educational experience that cultivates well-rounded scholars. Long before service learning became a contemporary buzzword, APU science students and faculty presented science demonstrations, judged science fairs, tutored local students, and sponsored community outreach programs.
This component not only serves the community, but it also gives students rare field experience and a distinct advantage upon graduation. Athletic training students volunteer 11,000 hours within a variety of internships at two local high schools and three sport medicine clinics; while student nurse interns volunteer nearly 70,000 hours in hospitals, clinics, and local schools every year, as well as in APU’s Neighborhood Wellness Center (NWC).
Experiential opportunities and service-centeredness finds its roots in a faculty mix that focuses equally on academic and spiritual growth in every student. “Our science program is characterized by outstanding teaching, and our faculty invest heavily in their students. We do not utilize graduate teaching assistants; rather, we have highly qualified faculty members in the classroom, working with students in small-class settings. It makes a remarkable difference,” said David Weeks, Ph.D., dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Students at a public university likely take freshman science classes alongside 80-500 students. In contrast, the majority of APU classes have fewer than 30 students and labs average 12-15 students.
Small classes allow Azusa Pacific professors to take mentoring to the highest level, going out of their way to cultivate relationships with their students, regularly meeting for spontaneous coffee chats and hosting students for dinner in their homes. This tradition began in the early 1980s when Scott Kinnes, Ph.D., then one of five professors in the department, opened his home to his students for meals and Bible studies to get to know them on a personal level. “One of my first students, Jon Milhon, now teaches in the department and has taken that tradition and made it his own,” said Kinnes. “The students connect with him, watch him interact with his family, and quickly become part of the family.” The cohesiveness translates to an intangible quality that admissions officers at prestigious graduate schools and prominent medical organizations find irresistible.
“A faculty advisor at USC’s Keck School of Medicine recently told me they have received many great applicants from APU over the years,” said Milhon. “In fact, one of our alumnae started there this fall and has been elected the president of the first-year class. Over the past two years, six of our students applied to USC graduate programs, including biomedical sciences, the medical school, and the school of physical therapy which is ranked number one in the nation. Each of those programs have an acceptance rate of approximately 5 percent. All six applicants were accepted! USC graduate and medical school representatives now visit APU each spring to present at our seminar series and recruit our students.”
Mentoring is what makes the difference at APU. “The letter of recommendation I can write for a student I have known for four years, shared meals with, and watched grow, pales in comparison to those I could write for 400 students I couldn’t get to know personally,” said Milhon.
