Project Access, Looking Back to 2023’s Competition Winner

Each year at the Education Forum, PAEA recognizes the most innovative Project Access student engagement activity with the Brenda Jasper Award. In 2023, that award went to the students and faculty of George Washington University’s (GW) PA program. The GW students volunteered at four different schools across the Washington DC area.

For Alana Herran, MPH, PA-C, who was part of the student group, being able to take part in Project Access brought home the fact that being a PA is more than simply being in a classroom or exam room. “PA week is a time when students take part in advocacy, networking, and creative outreach as a community. We witnessed the energy of the high school students’ faces change from shy and nervous excitement to being inspired and asking questions.”

“The students were highly motivated self-starters,” explained Howard Straker, EdD, MPH, PA-C, Director, Physician Assistant/MPH Program. “As faculty advisor, all I did was to connect our students with persons who could help facilitate the program for the various schools. Once connected, the students took off with the planning and implementation.”

Straker added that Project Access helps students learn to live out the role of a PA and the mission of their program. “The competition united them into a cohesive group and motivated them to do even better. It reminded them why they chose to be PAs.”

Straker also has a personal connection to the award which gives it additional significance. “I met Brenda Jasper, a Howard University PA educator, when I was a student at the Yale PA program and participated with her at the first Project Access.

“GW has two other faculty who were students of hers at Howard University. For all of us, it is a special honor to have our students win an award named after her.”

Beyond the competition itself, Straker said that GW celebrates PA week with outreach to its local communities. “Being a PA is about caring beyond ourselves,” he explained. “Thus, for many programs, PA week activities include outreach to our communities. At GW this outreach takes many forms, from blood donation drives, fundraising, food and clothing drives for community residents in need, to Project Access — an outreach to young people K-12 in underserved communities. Project Access connects PA students with both potential future PA and the communities in which they live.”