Meet our first MIS class: Jack Yarnall
Jack Yarnall: a new graduate getting the most out of a gap year
Jack Yarnall had known for years that he wanted a career in medicine. His mother’s bout with cancer and his resulting experiences in a hospital setting made him especially aware of the impact that good and caring physicians can have on patients and their families.
With this goal, Yarnall double majored as a Vanderbilt undergraduate student in Medicine, Health and Society and Neuroscience. Having much of his undergraduate experience disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic left Yarnall unsure about whether he wanted to jump directly into another four-year commitment for his MD degree: “It took a lot for me to kind of realize: it’s okay to take a step back and reevaluate things. It became important for me to actually take a gap year, to refocus, and do something that was interesting to me.”
Why you should always read your email
Yarnall discovered Vanderbilt’s new, one-year Master of Imaging Science (MIS) program in an email from Vanderbilt Health Professions Advisory Office outlining potential gap year options. Having worked as an undergraduate in Dr. Kathryn Humphreys’ Stress and Early Adversity (SEA) Lab, Yarnall had some familiarity with and interest in neuroimaging. He thought the MIS was “right up my alley in terms of what I was interested in, with my experience in brain imaging, but also meant I’d be able to expand that to all the different imaging modalities, while giving me good experience for med school.”
The decision was the right one: “I’ve loved the program so far. I’ve loved learning more anatomy but also different ways to look at the body and brain. You can tell the professors are excited about what they’re teaching. The program provides a better understanding of how you can use imaging to visualize different things, like why you would prefer one way to image versus another. That’s a really important question, and if you know the science behind it, it’s a lot easier to answer.”
Sharpening his focus
His experience with MIS has strengthened Yarnall’s desire for a career in medicine, though his trajectory has changed a bit: “I was thinking along the lines of orthopedics or cardiology, but now radiology, with an oncology focus, that’s what I want to do for sure.”
The application for Vanderbilt’s MIS class of 2025 is now open. Meet the class of 2024, learn more about the program, and apply.