Skip to main content

About Me

Hello!

Thanks for reading my blog. My name is Olivia, and I am a non-traditional, distance PA student in Wisconsin. As a distance student, I am completing my didactic education over two years instead of one, and then will have one year of clinicals. I watch my lectures online and have my exams proctored at a local public library. Because I am a "part-time" PA student right now (but, technically a full-time grad student!), I am able to keep working. I work 24-32 hours a week as a clinical dietitian at a local hospital. Needless to say, I am quite busy! In fact, you can read about my daily routine here.



I've written a few posts about my pre-PA story, so check those out to learn about what I did to get into PA school, how I chose what schools to apply to, and mistakes I made along the way.

What else can I say about myself? I'm in my 30s, I own a home and have an adorable dog named Milo who is the best study buddy. I'm an extrovert and I love squeezing in time in my busy schedule to meet friends for tacos, go for a hike, grab a drink, or walk to the farmers market. When I'm taking breaks from studying, you can probably find me taking Milo for a long walk while listening to a true crime podcast!



I originally had a career in the marketing and advertising industry as a copywriter and social media specialist, but then went back to school to get my certificate in dietetics. Originally, I thought I would be a private practice dietitian and have a strong online presence (given my background in social media), but I fell in love with clinical nutrition and working in a hospital. And while I still enjoy being a dietitian, I can't wait for this next challenge and career!


You'll see that one of my focuses on this blog is related to budget. While I am certainly no expert on the matter, it's important for me to be as financially savvy as possible and to try and keep my student loan debt as small as possible (a laughable task given that I've put myself through college three times!). According to ThePALife.com, "the average anticipated debt load from PA school is at $112,500." A staggering number. I can't imagine I'm the only PA student stressing over how to pay for this adventure, so I hope you can learn something along with me!

Oh, and I should mention you can follow me on Instagram, too!

Thanks so much for reading,
Olivia


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PA School Interviews: 35 Practice Questions and Tips for Zoom

Getting ready for PA school interviews? Congratulations! And while interview season may look a little different this year (Zoom calls, anyone?), the importance of being properly prepared is still the same! I used to work in advertising and public relations, and sometimes I would prepare experts to talk to the media. What was the most important thing for the experts to do? Know your key messages. There's going to be topics you know will likely be addressed in an interview, so be prepared to speak to those specific things.  Same goes for PA school interviews. Yes, I've heard of programs asking some off-the-wall questions that you probably wouldn't see coming, but generally speaking there's a variety of likely topics that will come up. My advice? Think through how you want to answer those questions ahead of time. For me, this looked like an 11-page Google doc with sample questions I prepared answers for. It forced me to think through scenarios I'd want to share and my ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Resiliency: PA School During a Pandemic

I saw this article on Facebook and it really hit home for me: "Your 'Surge Capacity' is Depleted -- It's Why You Feel Awful." I strongly encourage you to read the whole article yourself, but a few things stuck out to me that I feel compelled to share.  First, what's surge capacity? It's your adaptive abilities for dealing with acute stress. The problem with a pandemic is that it isn't really acute in the same way that a massive tornado or other disaster might be. We're in this for the long haul, and if you're like me, those adaptive abilities have worn thin.  For me, this has looked like feelings of helplessness and exhaustion. I've spent a lot more time on my couch watching bad reality TV than I'd like to admit. But with school starting in up in less than a week, that really isn't going to fly. So how does a student (in an intensive graduate program) keep moving forward? "Both-And" Thinking One of my favorite lessons fro...
Post a Comment
Read more

Online PA School: 20 Tips for Success

I'm a distance education student, which means I'm quite familiar with this whole online learning thing. I'm not going to sugar coat it -- it can be isolating, which is further impacted by the pandemic. But I will say this -- with the right mindset, a lot of patience and dedication, and support from classmates, friends and family, you can totally do this. Have a dedicated study space or two. This will help you stay focused. Never study in bed -- keep that area strictly for sleep. Get enough sleep ! PA school is dang hard and you need a non-groggy brain. Keep a schedule. Mine involved getting up at 5am every day . Gross, I know. Set timers if that helps you stay focused. Study for 50 minutes, chill for 10 minutes. Put your phone in the other room. Instagram can wait. Have a study crew . Me and two other students in my area would get together to study all day at a coffee shop before each exam, and we transitioned this to Facebook video messenger after the pandemic. This was ...
Post a Comment
Read more