Scholarships Help Fuel the Dream

Scholarships have played a crucial part in kick-starting LeAndra Brown’s career.  

Brown is a Certified Physician Assistant (PA-C). To get there, she devoted countless hours at Franklin College to obtaining her second master’s degree. Brown got her undergraduate in kinesiology at IUPUI and her first master’s degree at UNC Charlotte in clinical exercise physiology. But unlike her fellow PAs, she did not even know what a Physician Assistant was until her last semester of her first graduate program.  

After finding out about the career, Brown knew she had to find a way to fund her schooling without taking out another loan. She applied for, and received, two scholarships – the Health Career Opportunity Program Scholarship (HCOP) and the National Health Service Corps Scholarship (NHSC). 

 “As someone who didn’t learn what a Physician Assistant was until the last semester of her first master’s degree program, I would say programs like this are instrumental,” said Brown.  

“This decision [to go back to school] was God–ordained because he put the right people who knew the right things in my path, which is how I learned about this program.” 

Both scholarships focus on inviting students to give back to said communities, which was a primary interest for Brown. 

“The HCOP program introduces different health-related careers to youth in rural and inner-city areas with the intent to spark early interest and cultivate a desire to advance in health-related careers.” — LeAndra Brown ’23

The NHSC program requires at least a two-year commitment to working in a medically underserved area. 

“As someone who was fresh out of school, this was a great starting point to help reinforce my knowledge base. It has allowed me the opportunity to be exposed to a wide variety of body systems as opposed to being limited to just one,” said Brown. “It was important to me that I used the first couple of years out of school to fine tune the skills necessary for me to be an all-around effective healthcare provider.” 

Most of Brown’s journey was just a feeling that she was doing what she was meant to do. She was unable to put words to her choice, until a class in her first master’s program. The class displayed a graph that showed racial disparities, which disturbed her. Combined with Wake Forest University’s motto – Pro-Humanitate – which means that one should use their calling as a way to help better the lives of others – Brown made a choice to pursue a PA career.   

“My dream life is living a life that is pleasing to God,” said Brown. “Franklin afforded me the opportunity to make the desire to play a more active role in patient care my reality.”