Angie (Angela) was born and raised in Montana and attends Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences. She is a third-year medical student and is the recipient of the Shirley Carpenter Endowment Scholarship award.
Angie wrote to the Foundation about her experience volunteering with children, “I became involved in the Barge-Lincoln Elementary (BLE) Outreach Program in my first year at Pacific Northwest University (PNWU). PNWU students visit BLE annually on three separate occasions to introduce the osteopathic profession to second graders while providing health education and promoting higher learning”. Elementary students attend modules such as “nutrition”, “physical fitness”, and “mental health”. “I helped organize the module on mental health in my first year of medical school. The program culminates with a field trip for second graders to PNWU where they participate in Mini-Med School, complete with osteopathic medicine-related activities and white coat ceremony”.
She goes on to say, “Animated by this program, I ran for and was elected Vice President of the Student Osteopathic Medical Association PNWU Chapter Club, as the VP is responsible for overseeing the BLE Outreach Program and Mini-Med School. In my second year of medical school, I altered the BLE Outreach Program and dedicated modules to the osteopathic principles recognizing the person as a unit. This year, we discussed the healthy mind and the healthy body in the first two modules. We planned a third module to address the healthy spirit, which was canceled given school closures for the remainder of the year.
“PNWU medical students recognize that that we can make great change by planting ideas of holistic being into the youth of Yakima. We trust that our community will foster these concepts to produce well rounded individuals, patients, and osteopathic physicians”.
Julie Randolph Habecker, Ph.D. and Associate Professor of Pathology at PNWU used these words to describe Angie, “She is passionate, very well prepared, skilled, organized, and engaged”. She went on to say, ” She has been inducted into the Gamma Delta Chapter of Sigma Sigma Phi, a medical student honor society. She will also serve one year as a PNWU Anatomy Scholar, an opportunity that will allow her to hone her teaching skills and engage in research. Ms. Maxson is an excellent, accomplished medical student who is committed to osteopathy and serving underserved communities. She volunteered for the SPYS Program. SPYS is an intensive science emersion program for underrepresented minorities in STEM, specifically Hispanic and Native American youth in the Yakima Valley. What really distinguished her work is her high level of emotional intelligence and cultural sensitivity. Ms. Maxson truly embraced the opportunity as a co-mentoring process and truly engaged with the students to learn about their culture and how it framed their experiences. I would select Ms. Maxson to be my physician”.
Along with all of these endeavors, Angie has also devoted many volunteer hours to the Union Gospel Mission free medical clinic in Yakima. She is bilingual and is able to communicate with Hispanic patients to get them the care they need. She states, “I am committed to my personal service goal of no less than fifty hours per academic year”.
Angie, you demonstrate the essence of osteopathic medicine. The Foundation congratulates you and looks forward to following your career. Job well done.