Last weekend Crean Collage’s PA Student team claimed First Place at the CAPA Challenge Bowl!

The CAPA Challenge Bowl team (Spencer Scobie-Gilpin, Courtnie Ly, and Sophia Bilboa), competed against 13 California PA programs. The students earned an overwhelming victory and won the California state championship, going against the University of the Pacific and Point Loma Nazarene University in the finals.

PA Professor Mayngan Stone commented, “ The California Academy of PAs (CAPA) has been an organization to support the PA profession for over 45 years. I have been a member of CAPA since I was a PA student in 2003 and now, as a part of CAPA’s PA school sub-committee. Every year during PA week in October, California Academy of PAs (CAPA) holds an annual conference for general medicine and specialty PAs: CAPACon. The Student Challenge Bowl is hosted by CAPA during CAPACon. This year, 13 California PA schools entered the competition. Each school sent a team of 3 plus an alternate team of another 3 students.

This was my 2nd year coaching the CAPA Challenge Bowl team with Anne Walsh.  We then meet weekly for at least an hour and a half to go over different topics until the event. What I love most about coaching our CAPA Student Challenge Bowl team is the enthusiasm and commitment of our students: they come to practice with their bright smiles, even with exams the next day! This year, our team won 3 rounds to be crowned the winner of CAPA’s 2022 Student Challenge Bowl! Personally, I’m ecstatic about this win because our team trained diligently for nearly 4 months and their hard work paid off. On a larger scale, I feel blessed and honored to be a part of the wonderful team of Chapman’s PA program.”

Crean Professor Anne Walsh added, “We are very proud of our students. Both the team members and alternates, practiced one evening each week with us for the past 4 months on top of their regular studies. Their win was well-deserved, and they were such a pleasure to work with. We truly appreciate the program’s support of their participation in these important events. They are so excited to compete in the national challenge bowl next spring in Nashville!”

Mike Burney, Chair of the PA program remarked, “The California PA community was very impressed by our student’s academic preparation and performance. A representative from the national certification for PAs (NCCPA) also was in attendance today and she was most impressed by our students, as well. Numerous PA Faculty from across the state were very complimentary on how well our students performed today. A big thank you to Professor Stone and Professor Walsh for your continued dedication to our students and the program.”

The student participants were:

  • Team: Sophia Bilbao (Class of 2022), Courtnie Ly (Class of 2022), and Spencer Scobie-Gilpin (Class of 2023)
  • Alternates: Ryan Farquhar (Class of 2023), Nadia Keddo (Class of 2023), and Summer Walker (Class of 2022)

A big congratulations to our 2022 CAPA Champions!