Saejin Confusione, PA-C( Class of 2025), examines a standardized patient in the Clinical Learning Center.
physical therapy as a career, she enrolled in the exercise physiology program but changed her post-graduate course after an academic advisor suggested she look in FSU’ s PA program.
Like Romero, Gardner was influenced by her grandmother’ s medical experiences as a cancer patient receiving chemotherapy.
“ Cancer runs in my family pretty heavily, so I shadowed her oncologist and really enjoyed it,” Gardner said of the experience prior to her freshman year.“ My grandma was talking about the PAs the whole time and honestly, somewhat enjoyed getting chemo, as crazy as that sounds. I started looking more into the profession because I wanted to be a little more hands-on on a day-to-day basis with patients.”
Eventually, Romero and Gardner were connected directly with the PA program, where they encountered a welcoming staff and faculty, beginning with initial point-of-contact, admissions coordinator Michelle Seyez.
“ She genuinely cared about who I was, regardless of whether I went to FSU’ s PA school,” Gardner said.“ The more I got into the FSU PA community, I found that the teachers genuinely cared about who you are as a person... especially Dr. Smith. I took his class and that really solidified everything.”
Smith’ s Introduction to the PA Profession undergraduate course at FSU has been a vital pathway to the program, which is mirrored in Pensacola where Associate Professor Kim Berggren, PA-C, DMSc, manages the University of West Florida PA Pathway Program.
“ Being one of 50 students in the class, it felt like he was talking to you and that he was genuinely passionate about
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FALL 2026 | FSUMED 19