Joel Mercier

Mattituck, NY College of the City of New York (Biology)

September 15, 2017
Joel Mercier

Though his father is a pediatrician and both his mother and sister are nurses, Joel Mercier said he wasn’t sure he wanted to go into medicine until he visited Tanzania as part of a four-month medical mission with Youth with a Mission.

“It was eye-opening,” Mercier recalled. “It was amazing to work with these doctors who managed to give their patients care even though they didn’t have basic medical supplies or equipment.” Tanzania wasn’t Mercier’s only trip with Youth with a Mission. After graduating high school, Mercier travelled the world with the organization. The coolest place he visited? Vanuatu, a small island in the South Pacific. Mercier was there for five weeks and hunted and fished with a tribe.

After finishing a degree in biology at the College of the City of New York, Mercier felt burnt out and wasn’t interested in medical school. Among the many jobs he held during his time at school included being a courier for the Postmates company. “It was wild. I got to see the entire city and places you can’t imagine,” he said.

 While working as a medical scribe, he saw how active PA’s were. “They were doing everything doctors were doing,” he said.

He chose to attend Touro because many of the doctors he worked with were Touro graduates.

“The Touro doctors were humble people who knew their stuff.”