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Program wins Excellence in Education Award by Kathy D. Shanahan College of Health Professions MUSC’s physician assistant program received this year's Excellence in Education Award during the S.C. Rural Health Association and S.C. Area Health Education Consortium’s (AHEC) annual conference. Receiving the annual award on behalf of the PA program were Mary Hewitt, clinical coordinator, and Paul F. Jacques, program director. “The award meant that we are achieving our goals as part of our mission statement, and our efforts were recognized and validated,” Jacques said. The PA program’s mission statement reflects its commitment to rural health care: “The program supports the growth of the profession in underserved and culturally diverse areas. The program strives to establish a diverse student body.” Students from rural and medically underserved areas are actively recruited, with the belief that they will return to those areas to practice. Additionally, each student completes at least two of nine clerkships in a rural setting. Most do more. The PA program has a long history of shared goals with SCRHA, AHEC, and the South Carolina Office of Rural Health (SCORH).  These goals include improving the quality of life for the state’s medically underserved residents by providing programs, activities, and services to improve health care and its infrastructure. All 46 counties in 80 percent rural South Carolina are totally or partially designated as medically underserved areas by the federal government. According to the SCRHA, the state is 48th in the nation for overall health. “Rural areas differ from urban areas in their geography, population mix, density, economics, lifestyle, values and social organizations,” states the National Rural Health Association. “They require programs that respond to their unique characteristics and needs.” The College of Health Professions’ Physician Assistant program has found a way to respond to those needs.     Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community Press at 849-1778.