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.
This connectedness between professor and student also cultivates clinical opportunities.
APU’s proximity to and relationship with City of Hope, a major biomedical
research and treatment center, means valuable internships. For years, APU science
students have gained practical experience in cellular biology, protein chemistry,
and more under the expert supervision of Ganesaratnam K. Balendiran, Ph.D.,
assistant professor, Division of Immunology, City of Hope. “APU students
are superior,” he said. “They come to me with an excellent theoretical
foundation, are incredibly motivated to learn, and contribute significantly
to the process of solving medical problems with chemistry. I am fortunate to
work with these bright students every year and am happy to help prepare them
for the next step on their journey.”
To prep for these coveted internships, APU science students draw extensively
from an academic program led by faculty who bring a high level of expertise
to the classroom. Every professor in the department creates an atmosphere of
challenging academics coupled with real-world opportunities. A recent example
includes nationally recognized professor of mathematics and physics Donald Isaak,
Ph.D., who received significant funding for a three-year mineral physics research
project from the National Science Foundation (NSF) through his research lab
at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The grant provides for
research in geophysics of a mineral called pyroxene, which is found in large
amounts within the earth 100 to 400 kilometers deep, promoting further understanding
of the earth’s interior, and benefiting the study of earthquakes. The
grant money supplies equipment, as well as travel for Isaak to Japan, where
he and several of his APU students will work with and learn from Japanese researchers.
“Our primary goal is to study how seismic waves travel through different
types of pyroxenes at different temperatures,” said Isaak. “Since
most earthquakes occur in the upper 400 kilometers of the earth, the more we
know about the composition of this layer, the better equipped we will be to
understand earthquakes.” Because of his research, Isaak serves as the
principal investigator at UCLA for the research of pyroxene.
APU professors encourage students to similarly engage at the national level
by participating in important research. As a result, three scientific papers
listed APU undergraduates as collaborating authors and multiple other students
presented at the American Scientific Affiliation Conference, the National College
Media Convention, the Society for Neuroscience Convention, and the Western Psychological
Association Conference, to name just a few. Building on that momentum, nine
students recently presented papers at national conferences, one of which was
accepted for publication in the American Scientific Affiliation Journal. Taking
advantage of cutting-edge equipment at collaborating institutions, six APU undergraduate
students participated in a UCLA research experience, leading to 10 students
presenting or co-presenting results at national or regional research meetings/workshops
and 19 peer-reviewed scientific publications, 7 of which included APU students
as co-authors.
This uncommon undergraduate experience tips the scales when APU graduates seek
advanced degrees. Many even receive multiple offers to prestigious schools –
an impressive feat given the national trends. In the United States, students
applying to medical schools file an average of 12 applications each, hoping
for at least one positive response. However, the highly selective admissions
process weeds out all but the top few. According to U.S.News & World Report,
Johns Hopkins University accepts only 5.9 percent of total applicants, and Duke
University only 4.4 percent. During the last three years, APU graduates earned
acceptance to both those universities’ graduate programs as well as the
University of Southern California, Loma Linda University Medical Center, Albert
Einstein Medical School, University of Southern California School of Dentistry,
University of Washington School of Medicine, Pennsylvania State School of Medicine,
Campbell University Master of Science, and many more, and internships at the
American Heart Association, the Claremont Colleges, and City of Hope.
Such successful science programs yielded significant growth, tripling its enrollment
and quadrupling its number of majors and professors (see sidebar) since its
inceptions. APU’s 30-year-old science facilities stand in need of serious
upgrading. The administration and Board of Trustees consider a new science building
to be the top capital project with fundraising underway and a projected groundbreaking
in 2007. As Azusa Pacific University approaches this project and long after
its completion, the unparalleled rigor and unique experience afforded students
will remain an APU distinctive and medical applicant advantage.
Hear Milhon and APU science graduates capture in their own words the way APU
impacts people, one life at a time. Visit www.youtube.com/user/UniversityRelations.
Cynndie Hoff is a freelance writer living in Walnut, California. ceh.hoff@verizon.net
