“Without Millsaps, the road would have been much tougher and steeper in our pursuits of the medical field.”
This is the message that Hunter Cooper, a 2019 graduate of Millsaps College, wants to share as he and eight other members of his class start their transition from college and celebrate their 100 percent acceptance rate into medical school.
Cooper, a biology major from Ocean Springs, credits his professors for helping him get ready for this next step toward his goal of being a physician.
“Each one is completely devoted and extremely passionate about what they do, they want to have fun in the classroom, they get excited when they see you learning, and at the end of the day, the only thing they care about is about their students, how their students are doing, and they desire to help their students in any way they possibly can,” Cooper said.
Joining Cooper in the move to medical school are Steele Liles of Calhoun City; Reagan McGuffee of West Monroe, La.; Rachel Barlow of Baton Rouge, La.; Grant Kalil of Gulfport; Tyler McGee of Kosciusko; Ryan Henry of Pontotoc; Sarah Rimmer of Bay St. Louis; and Alycee Moity of New Iberia, La.
Millsaps’ location directly across from the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) makes the move a bit easier, especially when students are able to do research and internships during their undergraduate studies. For example, Liles completed an internship in which he assisted in the collection and assessment of data in the immunohistochemistry laboratory at UMMC, to detect opportunities to reduce costs. He also worked with Community Health Advocates of UMMC to host health screenings and health promotion events designed to address the poor health status of the state.
While there is plenty of time for these graduates to decide their areas of practice or specialty, they are already looking at pursuing careers in pediatric orthopedic surgery, medical research, specialized clinical practice, neonatology, emergency medicine, oncology, and cardiology.
They each offered their own reasons for choosing Millsaps, ranging from the ability to play sports at the college level to smaller class sizes and the opportunity to work more closely with faculty. Among all their reasons, though, was a common theme of Millsaps’ high acceptance rate for students interested in medical school and a sense that they would be prepared for whatever comes next.
For Barlow, who plans to study at LSU-Shreveport, that preparation came through a histology class taught by Dr. Sarah Lea Anglin, professor of biology. “First-year medical students take this class, and I know I will be prepared after studying histology at Millsaps,” she said.