Going to Ghana with Emma Waltz, MPAS ’26
Emma Waltz participates in a batik fabric making class in Cape Coast, Ghana. (Courtesy of Emma Waltz)
Emma Waltz, MPAS ’26, had a love of travel instilled in her by her parents.
She’s backpacked across Europe, traveling to Scotland, Budapest, Prague, and beyond. So, when it came time to do her clinical rotations as a student in Chatham University’s Master of Physician Assistant Studies program, she knew she wanted to go international.
Cape Coast, Ghana, was the destination she chose.
“That was one thing that kind of drew me to Chatham, is they had the opportunity for you to do an international rotation,” Waltz said.
Waltz, who grew up in Reading, PA, did her undergraduate studies at Boston University. After graduating, she worked as a nursing assistant and phlebotomist, among other healthcare jobs. When it came time to apply to graduate school, a friend of a friend recommended Chatham University.
From the start of the admissions process, Waltz knew she wanted to go to Chatham.
“I was really impressed with Chatham during the interview,” Waltz said. “I thought they were by far the most organized school [I spoke to]. They very clearly showed what they were about.”
For example, as part of her admissions interview, Waltz participated in a mock session of Problem-Based Learning (PBL), a classroom style that simulates what healthcare professionals can expect when they encounter real patients.
Now several months into the program, Waltz has become familiar with many of the faculty in the College of Health Sciences.
“You get to know every faculty member in different ways, because they're all very involved in the classes,” Waltz said. “If they're not teaching PBL, they're giving guest lectures, they're doing different parts of skills, they’re advising you.”
Her clinical rotations have taken her to the emergency department of UPMC Children’s Hospital, a family doctor in Las Vegas, and a plastic surgeon. Last term, Waltz went to Ghana to work in internal medicine at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital. “It was the best vehicle for me to see the widest span of different types of healthcare while I was there,” she said.
“The internal medicine unit basically got all of the general medicine cases that couldn’t go somewhere more specific, such as orthopedics or surgery or women’s health,” Waltz said. “I was seeing a wider range of things: infectious disease, like tuberculosis or malaria, as well as kidney failure or heart failure.”
It was a good educational environment, Waltz said. Because it’s set up as a teaching hospital, she and her colleagues were often quizzed by specialists and other providers, and there was always an opportunity to learn from or share knowledge with others.
Then there was the food, one of the great parts of all good travel experiences. “We had a local coordinator who was from Cape Coast, born and raise, and she would cook for us every night and introduce us to Ghanian cuisine,” Waltz said. Fufu, waakye, jollof, and red red were some memorable dishes.
Now, back in Pittsburgh, Waltz is on a rotation at UPMC Shadyside Hospital, where she works on the hematology and oncology service.
“I had especially wanted this rotation, because I wanted to see inpatient medicine,” she said. But it was also a full circle moment: after completing her undergraduate, Waltz worked as a nursing assistant in an oncology floor of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “It’s interesting now being on the provider side of things,” she said.
Waltz said she hopes to work in surgery when she finishes her MPAS program, but now, as she comes close to the end of her seventh rotation, she said it’s rewarding to see just how much her knowledge has grown since she started at Chatham.