COSAM News Articles 2020 February Senior COSAM Student to Pursue Rural Medicine

Senior COSAM Student to Pursue Rural Medicine

Published: 02/25/2020

Auburn University senior Jacob Megehee was interested in pursuing a career as a pharmacist through the College of Sciences and Mathematics (COSAM) when he chose to attend Auburn. Originally from Scottsboro, Ala., Jacob said he fell in love with Auburn’s campus after visiting for the first time.

“I thought it was a beautiful campus and the people seemed really nice and accepting of new students,” he said.

One he began shadowing pharmacists, Jacob said he realized it was not the path for him.

“We didn’t get to work with people a lot, it was just more behind the counter work,” he said. “I’m interested in science, but I enjoy talking to people as well.”

The summer between his freshman and sophomore year, Jacob worked as a counselor and later the pastor at a CentriKid Christian summer camp and worked closely with kids and their parents.

“I fell in love with equipping parents to love their children and raise them well,” he said.

This realization led Jacob to change his major to biomedical sciences and apply and later be accepted to the Rural Medicine Program through the University of Alabama (UAB). He plans to become a family doctor in a rural county in Alabama, possibly in Oneonta, Ala, where his fiancé, Caroline, is from. After graduation from Auburn, Jacob will continue his studies at UAB in the fall.

Jacob attends Lakeview Baptist Church and volunteers with the children’s ministry. He also enjoys intramural sports and has been involved with Auburn’s International Buddy Program, a student-led organization that fosters meaningful friendships by pairing international students with local American students.

“It’s been really cool to meet people from different cultures,” he shared. “We’ve been able to get to know them and learn what it’s like for them to move so far from home. I’ve made some close friends.”

He has also been involved in undergraduate research in the Auburn University Department of Poultry Science, which has consisted of research on a bacteria that causes disease in chickens. Jacob has helped work to create a special feed to administer the chickens instead of antibiotics.

Jacob said one skill he has learned while being a student at COSAM is to study well and manage his time.

“I’ve also taken the failures I had freshmen year and applied that to the harder classes,” he said. I’ve learned how to spend my time wisely. We are here to study and work really hard, but if that’s all we do we’ll be bogged down. Doing fun things outside of school is also important.”