I’m Nicole Skursky, a physician assistant student at CUNY York College. I graduated cum laude from CUNY Hunter College in May 2013, where I double majored in sociology and creative writing and minored in anthropology. At Hunter, I was a member of the first JFEW Eleanor Roosevelt Scholars Program cohort and a contributor for the Olivetree Review. While I have always had a significant interest in medicine, I thought my passion was more aligned with public health, health policy, and clinical research, especially after doing volunteer work in Guatemala City for nearly a year before college. I worked at the NYC Department of Health throughout undergrad, and prior to starting PA school, I worked in clinical research at NYU School of Medicine (where I coordinated NIH studies focused on smoking cessation and slowing the progression of type II diabetes and chronic kidney disease) and Columbia University Medical Center (where I coordinated FDA trials on novel treatment therapies for massive rotator cuff tears and hip osteoarthritis). It was during post-college years that I felt a certain emptiness in my life trajectory and realized that medicine and constant patient interaction was what was missing. Having had a liberal arts-heavy education, I enrolled again at Hunter College and completed my post baccalaureate in pre-PA studies in December 2018.