Students From Various Backgrounds Succeed with WWAMI

Students at the University of Wyoming’s College of Health Sciences, from a variety of backgrounds, can become physicians and receive first-rate, hands-on medical education across the Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho (WWAMI) regions thanks to the Wyoming WWAMI Medical Education Program.

“The Wyoming WWAMI program offers three key advantages,” says Todd Guth, Wyoming WWAMI director. “First, our affiliation with the University of Washington School of Medicine (UWSOM) -- a top-ranked institution renowned for its excellence in academic training, cutting-edge research and primary care education. Second, our small class size in Wyoming WWAMI fosters deep connections with faculty and peers while enabling highly individualized experiences in medical school training. Third, students gain unparalleled clinical exposure by rotating across the Pacific Northwest -- including Alaska -- in rural and frontier communities, urban academic centers and regional referral hospitals spanning five states.”

The Wyoming WWAMI Program’s roster of students, across cohorts, includes brothers Kaden and Jordan Moore, of Powell, who share family ties as well as similar journeys into medicine; Carlos Garcia, of Wheatland, who found medicine while earning his undergraduate degree; Rylie Pilon, of Gillette, a former high school chemistry teacher and swim coach; and Cherol Minton, of Moorcroft, a former teacher, environmental and bentonite lab employee, certified nursing assistant, emergency medical technician and registered nurse. With different backgrounds and interests, these future physicians found their way to WWAMI.

Jordan Moore

Both brothers’ biographies on UW’s WWAMI webpage include international church missions, young families and their sister, who has Down syndrome, as part of their journey toward studying medicine.

Moore, a former UW Trustees Scholar who earned a bachelor’s degree in physiology and a minor in developmental disabilities, is a first-year WWAMI student. Growing up, he never thought of pursuing anything other than medicine.

When it came time to apply to medical school, he only applied to WWAMI. The program offers, potentially, the ability to graduate with no debt -- depending on scholarships and external factors -- if not significantly less than other programs, he says.

“The focus of the Wyoming WWAMI program is to train future physicians from Wyoming, in Wyoming, for Wyoming,” Guth says. “Every student in the Wyoming WWAMI program benefits from tuition support from the state of Wyoming in exchange for a service commitment to return to serve the people and communities of Wyoming as a practicing physician.”

Moore is happy to return to Wyoming and practice medicine. He loved growing up in Powell and would raise his son in Powell or a similar town, he says.

Moore, like Garcia and Minton, is a member of the entering class of 2025’s Targeted Rural Underserved Track (TRUST) track. As part of this track, he will to return to Powell for four weeks this summer and five months next year at Powell Valley Healthcare.

So far, his classes have included hands-on tutorials, such as physical exams and hospital mornings, where the students interview, examine real patients and develop a potential treatment plan.

These hands-on experiences, to his knowledge, set WWAMI apart as far as how early students have these opportunities.

“So, that’s been really helpful. It makes you feel more comfortable thinking about going on rotations,” he says.

Moore hasn’t decided on a specialty, he says, and won’t know what he wants to do until he gets experience in rotations.

While he’s not sure if growing up with his sister was the primary driver for entering medicine, it was a factor.

“I’ve always been drawn to working with people with disabilities because of her and, so, getting to be in a field where you get to work in some capacity with people with disabilities was very appealing,” he says.

If he became a pediatrician or went into general practice, he could become a go-to for families who received prenatal Down syndrome diagnoses, or young children with Down syndrome.

Because of the blessing his sister has been in his life, Moore would like to work to make life better for people with developmental disabilities, he says. In his opinion, there can sometimes be an attitude in the medical profession that Down syndrome and other developmental disabilities are a negative thing.

“I want to kind of be the opposite voice and say, ‘This is so exciting. Let me tell you about my sister,’” Moore says, referencing prenatal diagnoses. “Like, ‘Yes, this is amazing; you’re so lucky to have this. It’s going to be hard, but it’s going to be so rewarding.’”

Kaden Moore

While Jordan is in his first year, Kaden Moore is nearing the end of his third year and also is leaving his options open in terms of specialties. Following his church mission in Guatemala City, where he worked with, and developed connections with troubled youth, he thought he may go into behavioral health, he says, pulling him away from the interest he developed while attending his sister’s cardiology appointments as a child. Then, ahead of pursuing an undergraduate degree at Brigham Young University-Idaho, Moore got married and his father in-law, an optometrist in Cody, provided exposure to ophthalmology.

Moore first became interested in WWAMI because he could return to Wyoming with much of his tuition covered. He also researched the University of Washington School of Medicine.

“They’re an excellent program, and being affiliated with them through an M.D. program also was something I considered,” he says.

A WWAMI track in Billings, Mont., has allowed him, for the most part, to stay in one area with his family. He also participated in a pediatrics rotation at Billings Clinic as well as research opportunities.

A key experience for him, between his first and second year in WWAMI, was during the Triple I program (independent investigative inquiry). Moore connected with UWSOM faculty; was on-site at a busy trauma center; saw a variety of ophthalmologic conditions; and participated in research.

Having that experience through WWAMI was a great opportunity, he says. Because ophthalmology is something he’s interested in, it would be unfortunate if he was confined to only Wyoming or another state in the WWAMI region without those resources or departments. It opened doors to network with faculty members and explore opportunities, he adds.

As for Jordan, he’s capable and doesn’t need his advice, Kaden says, adding they both have small families and can support each other when things get difficult.

Carlos Garcia

Like Jordan Moore, Garcia is a former Trustees Scholar in the first year of his WWAMI journey. But, growing up, Garcia didn’t have experience with medicine.

When Garcia decided to pursue medical school, around his junior year at UW, WWAMI was always his first choice, he says. He feels like he owes Wyoming a lot because of the opportunities he and his family have had in the state.

“There’s been people in Wyoming that have helped my parents get going; I feel like that’s helped me get going -- it’s given me the chance,” Garcia says. “So, if I can pay my time back to Wyoming, I’d like to give it back.”

After earning the Trustees’ Scholarship, Garcia pursued his undergraduate degree in physiology, but medical school was not yet on his mind. At one point, he considered returning to work at his family’s construction company. Garcia has been working since he was around 10 or 12 years old, he says. He and his father worked construction and would landscape. This included installing sod at UW and, for a time, Garcia’s family also owned a food truck.

When he began to consider medical school, he applied for a job at the Meredith and Jeannie Ray Cancer Center in Laramie to see if it might be a good fit. After nearly three years working at the center and his first year in WWAMI, Garcia is pretty set on oncology as his specialty.

Oncology patients are vulnerable people who need good, intelligent care “but they also need emotional care more than anything, and I think that’s where I do very well,” Garcia says.

There have been many moments at the cancer center that influenced Garcia’s path into medical school and oncology. An interaction with a particular hospice patient has stuck with him.

“She came up to me, gave me a hug and said, ‘Hey, I think this is the last time I'll see you here, but I want you to go out there, and you’re going to be a good doctor,’” Garcia says. “She had that faith back then that I could do and that I would do it. So, that kind of drives me now.”

Rylie Pilon

While Garcia found his path during his time at UW, Pilon and Minton first entered different careers before entering medical school.

Pilon swam for UW while earning her bachelor’s degree in chemistry. She applied for medical school her junior year but didn’t get in and chose not to reapply her senior year. She was unsure of what to do, and a family friend mentioned Gillette’s need for chemistry teachers.

Pilon was offered the job and, when a head coach position for girls swimming opened, she took that on as well.

Teaching reshaped her ideas about learning, she says. Her students opened her eyes to the importance of going to class and focusing on learning rather than only achieving.

“I think it really gave me perspective into how to be a better learner, honestly, which was really cool,” says Pilon, a third-year WWAMI student. “I think it gave me time to just kind of get more life experience, get to travel a little bit and do something different, which I think has honestly helped me connect with patients.”

Pilon kept an open mind to teaching, but she always wanted to go into medicine. During her second year of teaching, she applied for and was accepted into WWAMI -- her first choice both times she applied.

WWAMI’s financial benefits are a great incentive that helped make medical school affordable and achievable, she says. But she also loves that WWAMI incentivizes good physicians to return to Wyoming.

“I get to come back and serve the communities that kind of helped me and I grew up in,” Pilon says.

The small class sizes during the first 18 months at UW with a good faculty-to-student ratio have been a beneficial way for her to learn, she says.

Diversity of training is another thing Pilon likes about the program, she adds. Students can visit all five states in the WWAMI region and see urban Seattle medicine, rural medicine and different communities.

During rotations, Pilon saw a stark difference between locations, which was “really cool,” she says.

Her rotation in a remote community in Alaska for pediatrics was immediately followed by a rotation at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, the only Level I trauma center in the region.

“We have access to all of the advisers in Seattle, on top of our Wyoming mentors and faculty as well. So, we almost get double the support in that way,” Pilon says.

While she’s yet to do an anesthesiology rotation, Pilon is interested in that field. She’s had good mentors and advisers, and rotation preceptors have helped her find some time with anesthesiologists, she says. Her rotations also have helped her develop an interest in OB-GYN.

Cherol Minton

Similar to Pilon, Minton’s first career was as a high school chemistry teacher.

Minton had thought about pre-medicine while earning her undergraduate degree at Westmont College, in Montecito, Calif., and decided against it at the time. An experience as a teacher’s assistant at Westmont College led her into teaching.

Eventually, she relocated to Wyoming and worked in an environmental lab after marrying her husband. Layoffs then led her to working in the lab at a bentonite plant. In the middle of another move and after having her first child, Minton walked out of the hospital, turned to her husband and declared she wanted to go to nursing school. She worked as a certified nursing assistant through her first year of nursing school and graduated in 2020, she says.

Minton worked as a registered nurse for five years -- four of those as a critical access nurse -- before entering medical school at the suggestion of a doctor she worked with, who also teaches some of the Wyoming WWAMI classes. She declined to apply the first year, but a second conversation, and the support of her husband, prompted her to apply for WWAMI. She briefly considered medical school in Denver, but Laramie offered closer proximity to her kids.

Her family is four hours away, she says, and she sees them every five to six weeks.

“So, it's a lot of face time. It was very hard feeling like I was abandoning my family, but my kids are doing great. They're surviving,” Minton says. “They still beg me to come home -- they’re getting there.”

It’s important to show them it’s never too late to find a field you love, she says, and demonstrate that they can do hard things, “because life isn’t always easy, and, so, sometimes you do the hard things because it’s the right thing to do, or it’s what you need to do.”

Her WWAMI classmates have been helpful. They all carry and support one other, she adds. Minton also has enjoyed the smaller class sizes and hands-on opportunities.

“I can’t imagine having a better group of people to teach us and people to work with, and it’s just really been a great experience,” Minton says.

While Minton is keeping her options open, she is interested in returning to critical access in the northeast corner of Wyoming where there is a need for physicians.

“I like that mix of inpatient and ER, and potentially also clinic and just all of the variety,” Minton says. “I like that little bit of everything, being like a true generalist. But we will see.”

About the Wyoming WWAMI Medical Education Program

The WWAMI Medical Education Program -- Wyoming’s medical school -- is a partnership between the University of Wyoming and the University of Washington School of Medicine.

WWAMI reserves 20 seats each year for qualified Wyoming residents. Students accepted to the program spend 18 months on the University of Wyoming campus. The third and fourth years are spent at selected clinical sites throughout the WWAMI region.

To learn more about Wyoming-WWAMI, go to www.uwyo.edu/wwami/index.html.

About the University of Wyoming College of Health Sciences

UW’s College of Health Sciences trains health and wellness professionals and researchers in a wide variety of disciplines, including medicine, nursing, pharmacy, speech-language pathology, social work, kinesiology, public health, health administration and disability studies. The college also oversees residency and fellowship programs in Casper and Cheyenne, as well as operating a speech/hearing clinic in Laramie and primary care clinics in Laramie, Casper and Cheyenne.

With more than 1,600 undergraduate, graduate and professional students, the college is dedicated to training the health and wellness workforce of Wyoming and conducting high-quality research and community engagement, with a particular focus on rural and frontier populations.