Ga.-PCOM students credit Eagle Scouting with medical school … – Gwinnettdailypost.com

Several students studying osteopathic medicine in Suwanee may have come from around the country, but their school is not the only thing they have in common. At least eight of them are Eagle Scouts.

The students, all enrolled at the Georgia campus of the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, recently gathered to attend the Northeast Georgia Council of the Boy Scouts of Americas American Values Dinner along with Chief Campus Officer Bryan Ginn. The dinner featured a local scouting report and address by Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle.

Several of the students said scouting gave them a glimpse into the hard work, life-saving practices and being prepared for emergencies for the profession theyre preparing to enter. Not to mention how to prioritize tasks.

Medical school is certainly the most demanding task Ive ever agreed to, but scouting and my Eagle Scout project in particular taught me that some of the best rewards and achievements come through working hard and persevering through difficult tasks, said second-year student Coston Rowe of Gadsden, Ala. The schoolwork is hard and seemingly endless sometimes, but I know that because of scouting, I will be equipped to help my future patients on a daily basis and provide for my family in an exciting and fulfilling way.

Rowe said his Eagle Scout project was to renovate a local neighborhood tennis and basketball court, including repairing or replacing the surface.

Along with other requirements, in order to advance from Life Scout to Eagle Scout, you must initiate, plan, manage and carry out a service project directed to benefit the local community it is up to you to plan, recruit help for, and execute this project, Rowe said. There were many times within that year that I just wanted to call it quits and not worry about the logistics anymore. But with the encouragement and help of my dad, my scout masters, and my other family and friends, I persevered and finished the project one year and one week after the first day of labor.

First-year student Brant Barron of Thomaston said he learned how to stick to something in scouting, and hes applied it in medical school.

Scouting introduced me to the practice of applying constant effort to reach increasingly more difficult goals. Many challenges presented in Boy Scouts let me experience situations where my personal strengths, mental preparedness and adaptability that I normally depended on would be exhausted, Barron said. I learned that only the faith to persevere could guide me to the tasks completion.