Alex Wall: Future M.D
By: Monina Gatus
The four years we spend at PARAMUS ECHS create a
lasting impact on our high school careers. Alex Wall, a senior
who’s attended Pineywoods since the 2nd grade, has
definitely made those years count. By participating in various
PCA clubs and going the extra mile in early college high
school classes, she has definitely made a name for herself. “I
was in National Honor Society my junior year and Drill Team
for two years. I’ve also been in Student Council and Choir all
throughout elementary and high school,” Alex states. She has
also held various titles throughout these extracurriculars.“I
was class president for Student Council last year and this
year, as well as president for Student Council as a whole this
year. I was also an officer for Drill Team my junior year,” she
adds. As if all this wasn’t enough on the 17-year old’s plate,
Alex took all the prerequisites for the LVN program her junior
year. “I’ve wanted to be a doctor since I was a little kid. I
thought that enrolling in the LVN program would help with what I want to do, but I found out
that medical schools initially look down on those planning to be doctors who take the place of
nurses, so I decided not to join the program anymore.”
Although Alex ended up taking extra college classes, she does not regret taking them.
In fact, she went to SFA’s Pre-Med Jamp Camp this summer to better prepare her for the career
she aspires: Pediatric Emergency Medicine. The camp was a one week course, and students
were provided with dorms. SFA had several high-level mini-college classes available for the
students and allowed them to “shadow”doctors and see what they did in a regular workday.
“We took Chemistry, Biology, and Trigonemetry, but we weren’t graded in them,” Alex reports.
“I ‘shadowed’ a pediatric dentist and a family medicine practitioner. I’ve always loved
working with kids, so I honestly enjoyed shadowing the pediatric dentist more than the family
medicine practitioner.”
Alex has always known what she wanted to be as a kid. “Ever since I was 6, I would
watch Discovery Health and ‘The Untold Stories of the ER’. I’ve always wanted to be a
pediatrician since I was little. My family has kind of inspired me to become one. I want to
particularly work in the ER because the situations the doctors there have to take care of are
always different.” In making our school proud, she was also recently accepted into SFA. Her
plans involve being an SFA Lumberjack for two years, a medical school student for 4 years,
and spending 2 years in specialization to obtain her Doctorate’s. With her GPA of 3.65, I’m
sure Alex will reach her goals. Pretty soon, a PCA graduate of 2015 will go by a different
name: Dr. Alex Wall.