La Urentian pOr tr ai t
Brit t an y Miser cOLa
LiaM DeLa Hant y
"
wOODy" pa r Ker
by Meg Bernier ’07, M’09
Brittany Misercola, Liam
Delahanty and C. Woodworth
“
Woody” Parker have more in
common than the year they gradu-
ated, 2009. Motivated in differ-
ent ways by their undergraduate
experiences, the classmates have
all pursued careers in military
medicine.
As a student, Parker got firsthand
experience in caring for others when he
worked as a first responder, EMT and
director of SLU-EMS, and with Canton
Fire-Rescue. His FYP professors, Carol
Budd and Ali Pomponio, several other
faculty and staff members, and his
father and grandfather, who both served
in the military, played tremendous roles
in Parker’s decision to translate this
experience into military service.
“
I’m very proud of our sailors, soldiers,
and airmen and -women,” he says.
“
Serving in the Navy Medical Corps
is a great way to support them, their
families and their missions.”
Parker is attending the Philadelphia
College of Osteopathic Medicine and is
a candidate for Doctor of Osteopathic
Medicine in 2016. He’s a beneficiary of
the U.S. Navy Health Professions Schol-
arship Program (HPSP), which allows
him to attend a civilian medical school.
Living in Watertown, N.Y., was part
of what inspired Misercola. “I was
always impressed by and interested in
the armed services, growing up near
Fort Drum,” she says. “I have always
felt drawn to serving people and the
country.”
A fourth-year student at Upstate Medi-
cal University in Syracuse through the
HPSP, like Parker, Misercola is hoping
to obtain a surgery residency next year
and specialize in general surgery in the
Air Force. But that wasn’t always her
plan.
“
When I came to St. Lawrence I
wanted to become a veterinarian, but I
was strongly influenced by my class-
mates to keep an open mind,” she says.
“
Studying the complexity of the human
brain as a neuroscience major made me
want to know more about humans as a
whole and also influenced my decision
to go into medicine.”
Delahanty knew he wanted to pursue
a medical career. It was a visit from an
alumnus that led the active-duty ensign
in the U.S. Navy to look into the Uni-
form Service University of the Health
Sciences (USUHS) in Bethesda, Md.
“
John Trentini (’03) spoke glowingly of
the USUHS when he came to Canton
to give a research talk my junior year,”
says Delahanty, who is in his fourth year
there. “The USUHS has given me the
opportunity to be a leader in medicine
and the military.”
After finishing his residency training,
Delahanty has agreed to a seven-year
service commitment and will move on
to an emergency medicine residency
program at the Portsmouth Naval Medi-
cal Center in Portsmouth, Va.
“
My role as a military physician will be
to preserve the fighting strength of our
armed services,” he explains.
“
I’m very proud of my classmates and
those alumni who are actively serving
today,” Parker says. “We’ve had quite a
few recent graduates who have deployed
or are in the pipeline. We should thank
them for their service.”
MEDICINE AND
THE MILITARY
Misercola
Delahanty
parker
spr ing 2013 | st. Lawrence Universit y Magazine 15