By Christi Mays
Paige Talbert’s professors describe her as a “stand-out student filled with compassion and positivity that radiate the room.”
While maintaining an impressive 4.0 throughout the didactic phase of the physician assistant program, Paige continuously impressed her classmates and teachers. Before the first exam, she decorated the classroom and brought donuts. She invited classmates, who didn’t get to go home for Easter, to her family’s house for the weekend, and even helped organize a pancake breakfast during finals week. Outside the classroom, she mentors undergraduate students, and for several days each week, she leaves the house before 5 a.m. to meet other classmates for Bible study before starting clinical rotations for the day.
Her classmates say it’s impressive how Paige’s faith shines through every single day and she “portrays an amazing example of what it means to walk with Christ.”
For demonstrating such outstanding leadership, Paige was awarded the Mayborn College of Health Sciences Leadership Scholarship. The money she received couldn’t have come at a better time. With unexpected expenses, she and husband Jake had been praying God would provide extra funds for school.
As Paige finishes her final semester, she can see how God was coordinating all her steps that got her to this point—like when she moved to Branson, Mo., after graduating from Baylor University in 2018 with her bachelor’s in nutrition sciences.
“I knew I wanted to go to PA school, but when the Lord opened this realm, I said, ‘OK, I’m going to walk faithfully here and thought the PA door had closed.’”
The one-year stint at the leadership in Biblical studies program led to another opportunity at a Christian sports summer camp where she met her husband and got married. After a few years, she started to feel the Lord calling her back to PA school. When her husband received an unexpected job offer at Baylor, the two packed up and headed to Texas. She applied to UMHB’s PA school and “let God do the rest.”
“UMHB was my top choice anyway because it has such a strong foundation in faith and the staff and faculty have relationships with the Lord. I just didn’t think it could get better!”
Each step along the way, she sees God’s plan now—from putting off school to strengthen her faith, to meeting her husband, to getting into the PA school where God wanted her.
“That year in Branson was pivotal for me. I was really focused on PA school and my faith was kind of second. But that year, the Lord captured my heart in its entirety.”
