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LaTina Emerson
Director of Communications
Institute for Biomedical Sciences
Georgia State University
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Angel Ferary (B.I.S. ’24) juggled many responsibilities at Georgia State, including playing on the beach volleyball team, coaching part time and completing an internship at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
ATLANTA — When Angel Ferary (B.I.S. ’24) dreamed of going to college, she wanted to play on a Division I beach volleyball team with her identical twin sister, Bella, and take classes related to science and medicine.
She has accomplished both of her goals and will graduate this spring with a degree from the Biomedical Science and Enterprise bachelor’s program in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences.
Ferary began playing beach volleyball before she started high school and was drawn to Georgia State’s team because of the team culture and coaching staff. Georgia State is one of few schools that gave her and her sister the chance to play collegiate beach volleyball together.
“My twin sister and I had always dreamed about playing beach volleyball in college and, being Georgia natives, we thought GSU would be the perfect place to play,” Ferary said. “Our team culture and standards at GSU are unlike any other program I have seen. The way our team pushes each other and keeps each other accountable is the reason we are so successful and are currently ranked nationally among other Division I beach volleyball programs.”
As a student-athlete, time management was Ferary’s biggest challenge.
“It can be tough sometimes to juggle all the pieces of being a Division I student-athlete, but you can always make time for the things you love to do, and for me, that was beach volleyball, coaching part time for my previous club (S3 Volleyball) and my education, which will eventually lead to my career,” Ferary said.
The native of Marietta, Ga., is the first of five children, along with her twin sister, to attend college. Her mother paved the way by earning degrees in nursing and becoming a women's health nurse practitioner. Ferary wants to follow in her mother’s footsteps and become a registered nurse.
“I have always been fascinated by the intricacy and structure of the human body, and along with that interest, I have always had a heart for tending to those who were ill,” she said.
In the fall, Ferary will participate in an accelerated nursing program at Kennesaw State University. She chose the Biomedical Science and Enterprise major at Georgia State because she wanted to dive deeper into studies about biology, immunology and medicine.
“By choosing biomedical science as my major, I have immersed myself in different courses that have led me to find what I love learning about most in science, specifically about the human body,” Ferary said.
Last summer, Ferary completed an internship at the Medical Examiner’s Office of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
“My internship with the GBI was such a great experience that I would recommend it to anyone who wants to go into the medical field, specifically pre-med or pre-nursing students,” Ferary said. “The internship itself covered very tough areas regarding post-mortem procedures and death, which I understand can be difficult to take in for some people. But overall, I learned so much about the human body as well as getting hands-on experience with medical concepts.”
To secure the GBI Summer Internship Program, she had to complete a full background check, fingerprinting and a polygraph or “lie detector” exam.
During the internship, Ferary completed a research project focused on different post-mortem examination techniques. She was particularly interested in a widely used technique that involves taking a sample of the vitreous humor in the eye.
“I thought it would be interesting to research the different uses of vitreous humor and what recent studies have determined about this post-mortem technique for determining the cause of death,” Ferary said.
Pre-med and pre-nursing students typically only have textbook pictures and small cadaver samples in the lab to teach them the different systems of the body, Ferary explained.
“While interning at the Medical Examiner’s Office, I had a multitude of hands-on examples of every system in the body,” Ferary said. “I got to see the difference between lung cancer, pneumonia and the effects of smoking all in one day. I could see the results of obesity and how it affects the heart’s coronary arteries. The medical examiners were such a great help in my learning process.”
Ferary is grateful that she was able to receive a quality education and play a sport she loves, all while remaining close to home.
“I’m confident that my degree in biomedical science and my signature experience with the GBI Medical Examiner have prepared me well to pursue my medical career,” she said.
— Story by LaTina Emerson