Joseph Michael Garcia

Family Medicine Residency at Louisiana State University

In the Emergency Room at Chabert Medical Center Joseph Garcia stood out among his peers. Says Matthew James, emergency room physician’s assistant , who worked alongside him, “Joseph was a phenomenal student to work along side with here at Chabert. His love for medicine and patient care was what I noticed most. His persistence and resilience are two of his strongest characteristics.” Matthew felt so strongly about Joseph and his clinical work that he personally reached out to MUA to tell the school what he had seen.

Honored and humbled by the accolade, Joseph shares “I worked as an emergency room technician while in college, and met some med students who were doing their clinicals. They told me about MUA, so I applied, was accepted and hopped on a plane and went! So glad I did. Professors were great and taught you exactly what you needed to know. Importantly they were very accessible. We had small classes which I really liked. I talked with my friends at other Caribbean medical schools and their classes were massive, and they hated it. The said they would sit in an auditorium and just get lectured at. It was a case of you either got it or you didn’t”.

While at MUA, Joseph found time to participate in the Peer Mentoring Program, an integral part of the MUA experience for first semester students. “My clinical experience was great. I spent most of my time in Louisiana at Chabert, and then went to Brooklyn for rotations. Among other things this rotation taught me to ride the subway! I did three electives in family practice, internal medicine (cardiology and nephrology) and finished in the ICU. Says Joseph, “I found myself easily distracted in undergrad at Louisiana State. For me therefore MUA is an ideal medical school. It is a great place to go, free from distractions, and really hunker down. I basically lived in the library there”.

A May 2018 grad of Medical University of the Americas, Joseph is currently a resident in Family Medicine at Louisiana State University in Alexandria, La. Following residency, he plans to pursue a fellowship in Sports Medicine.