As the eldest of four siblings, Carolina Kerber constantly found herself in charge. After years of babysitting, Kerber, a native of Brazil who grew up in Florida, discovered her passion for health care in one of her high school’s pre-health programs where she witnessed a surgery for the first time.

Upon receiving a bachelor’s degree in biomedical sciences from the University of Central Florida and becoming the first of her siblings to graduate from college in 2021, she worked as a certified nursing assistant during the COVID-19 pandemic, an experience that provided her with valuable hands-on patient experiences. Prior to the start of PA school, she also worked in a neurology unit at Orlando Health Hospital.

When she was first introduced to the PA profession, Kerber found what she loved most about health care in one career. In the coming months, she looks forward to moving back to Orlando for the start of her clinical rotations, where she will be able to apply her passion for patient interaction and communication.

“When you think of someone wearing a white coat, you think of someone who’s trained and who’s ready to take care of you,” Kerber said. “For me, getting my white coat is a light at the end of the tunnel and it’s something I look forward to wearing on rotations as we start the next steps of our program.”

Jonathan Chappell first knew he wanted to go into health care as an undergraduate student at Florida State University, where he worked as a nursing assistant on an oncology floor. Growing up in Sarasota, with a teacher for a mother and a fireman for a father, he learned the importance of caring for others.

For Chappell, the decision to attend UF’s PA school was an easy one.

“I just felt like I would be supported and have the best chance to succeed coming here,” he said. “My faculty adviser, Dr. Garbas, has a passion for primary care, and so do I. She and the rest of the faculty have really pushed me and helped me grow.”

Chappell said that he could not have reached this point without the support of his classmates, and he is looking forward to seeing where they end up in the future.

“This is just another moment to reflect and be thankful,” he said. “It’s cool to see how far we’ve come as a class and how we’ve grown in different ways throughout the program.”

Esther McCarthy’s interest in medicine began at age 13 when she embarked on a turbulent journey as a patient. After a year of unanswered questions, debilitating symptoms and unpredictable visits to the doctor, she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia at the age of 14. She felt that health care teams disregarded her symptoms and struggles in the search for a diagnosis. Her experience ultimately inspired her to study medicine to become the health care provider her 13-year-old self needed.

A first-generation student, McCarthy also has a passion for global health that is influenced largely by her mother, who immigrated to the United States from Korea. Prior to starting PA school, McCarthy spent a year in Australia and Papua New Guinea as part of a medical mission program, where she was exposed to the challenges of limited health resources and global health disparities. She is now applying her passion for providing access to care as a recipient of the National Health Service Corps Scholarship, a federally funded program that offers health professions students with financial support in return for them providing primary care in underserved communities after graduation.

McCarthy believes the white coat ceremony serves as a landmark for advisers, family members and students.

“I think we’re all really thankful to be at this stage of our training,” McCarthy said. “It feels like a milestone that I’ve been working toward for most of my life.”