Pre-Medical and Health Professions
Advising Area
Pre-Med is a special advising area, designed to complement your work in a related major to ensure that you’re ready to get accepted into and succeed in graduate school.
Health professions need insightful, capable, and experienced changemakers. We’re here to help you be one. As a Pre-Health student at Warren Wilson College you will prepare for your choice of medical school, pharmacy school, dental school, public health graduate school, physician assistant studies program, physical therapy program, or nursing school.
Our professors will push you, and your classmates will inspire you. But everything you’re studying will come into play and take on real meaning through your work crew involvement and community engagement. These experiences, which you will carefully select in partnership with your advisor, will enhance your graduate school application. You’ll apply to the health program of your choice with not only a strong GPA but real-life experiences that distinguish your application.
Why prepare for Medical and Health Professions at Warren Wilson?
- Original Research: Complete original research with your faculty mentor and present to an audience of your peers
- Alumni Connection: Learn from alumni such as Dr. Jack Allison, a retired emergency medicine physician with extensive clinical and academic credentials, who shared his experiences in health care and his tips for preparing a successful application to a health profession graduate school.
- Career Preparation: Complete internships, shadowing, and volunteer work at clinics, private practices, and hospitals with physical therapists, dentists, surgeons, family practice doctors.
Every student will complete community-engaged coursework, an internship, and original research as part of their major
A Sample of Our Partnerships
- Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC)
- Pardee Hospital
- NC Mission of Mercy Dental Clinic
- Asheville-Buncombe Community Christian Ministry Medical Ministry
- Bounty & Soul
- The Dr. John Wilson Community Garden
- Root Cause Farm
See how Pre-Med students put our education into action:
Internship
Paddington Mbumbgwa was a summer research fellow at NC State University Center for Marine Sciences and Technology and also a MAHEC Student Health Ambassador Program during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Community Engaged Course
In General Chemistry I, we partner with local Root Cause Farm to gather information about nutrient content in their kale grown under different conditions. You’ll also conduct assays to help our community partner make important management decisions.
Work
You can work on any crew as a student but many Pre-Med students choose to be on crews such as:
- Genetics
- Chemistry
- Biology/Environmental Studies
Research
Paddington Mbumbgwa
Characterization of Antibiotic-Producing Bacteria from the Plant Rhizospheres
Bacteria from soil adjacent to plant roots are a potential source of novel antibiotic compounds. Paddington isolated bacteria from the root zones of several types of plants on campus, and characterized several that inhibited the growth of other bacteria. Additionally, Paddington presented a poster of his work at the Blue Ridge Undergraduate Research Symposium.
Research
Reid Carpenter
Alkali-Tolerant Bacterial Species Associated with Small-Scale Indigo Fermentation Dye Vats.
The traditional Japanese of dyeing textiles with indigo requires bacterial reduction of indigo precursors under highly alkaline conditions, but the details of the fermentation processes are not well characterized. Reid identified and characterized bacteria involved in indigo reduction from fluids of fermentations prepared in the lab.
Kim Borges, Ph.D.
Research Interests
- Aquatic microbiology and public health
- Biochemistry of environmental mycobacteria and mycobacteriophages
“Warren Wilson students are the most engaged and curious students I have ever had the privilege of teaching. I feel so fortunate to work with students who challenge me to learn and grow every day.”
“The solid foundation in biochemistry that I built at Warren Wilson College has made diving deep into these complex processes not just manageable but genuinely fascinating. It’s empowering to connect biochemical pathways and disease mechanisms to real-world clinical outcomes, understanding how each molecular shift can profoundly impact a patient’s health and function.”
Paddington Mbumbgwa
(he/him)
Medical Student at Loma Linda University
Major, Minor, Concentration, Crews
- Biochemistry and Mathematics Double Major
- Crews: Chemistry and Genetics
Where Our Pre-Med Graduates Go
- Eastern Tennessee State University
- Loma Linda University
- Oregon Health and Sciences University
- Rocky Vista University
- University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
- Washington University in St. Louis
- Western Carolina University School of Nursing
