Medical student Hayden Jacobs finds ways to help others through medicine and music.
A Muskogee High School graduate in 2015, she recently spent two weeks with Dr. Ryan Mundy at Muskogee’s Premier Pediatrics for an internship in rural medicine.
Jacobs said he had been interested in medicine for as long as he could remember.
“I was ill as a baby and had respiratory problems until middle school,” he said. “I had the same pulmonologist and he was kind of my main source of inspiration.”
He said he studied science courses at MHS and earned degrees in biology and chemistry from Southern Nazarene University.
Pediatrics was his assignment during his internship.
“Most of my patient contacts were adults, so that was kind of different,” he said. “I’m used to saying, ‘What did you come here for today? You have to be a doctor.”
Jacobs said he pinpointed exactly when he fell in love with music.
“I just remember coming home and telling my parents that I wanted to learn to play the piano,” he said.
He sang with the Sadler Academy of Arts and the MHS choir. He joined the Jeonju Choir in his senior year.
Jacobs now plays piano in the Nazareth Congregation, Muskogee Church.
“I sing all the hymns and devotional songs and I make offerings like that,” he said. “We do special events like Christmas and choirs.”
Jacobs has lived and worked all over the world. He spent six months studying biology in Costa Rica during his college days. He spent three weeks on a South African medical mission with the Luke Commission, a group of doctors who live and operate mobile clinics in South Africa.
Playing the piano relieves stress
The piano provides a creative and relaxing outlet for Hayden Jacobs.
“Piano is one of the most versatile instruments,” he said. “Any genre of music can be played on the piano, and I feel like any emotion can be expressed through the piano.”
Jacobs said the piano was “very cleansing and very therapeutic.”
“Even if you have a stressful day, you can come home and sit at the piano and let it all out,” he said.
In some cases, Jacobs playing alone allows improvisation.
“But I have an extensive library of resources, so I can just sit down and start testing,” he says. “I love taking them out and getting back into them.”
He said he doesn’t have a favorite music genre.
“I like listening to and playing different things,” he said. “I play a lot of Christian music, and I play a lot of classical music. I like listening to alternative coffee house music.”
Jacobs said he finds his main outlet for music during Sunday services at Muskogee Church, a Nazarene congregation.
“It’s an important form of worship for me,” he said. “Like myself, I worship through music. I take my role very seriously and helping guide others to worship through music is part of my job.”
Internship changes Jacobs’ focus
Jacobs said he views himself as pursuing primary care, emergency medicine, and public health.
“I don’t think many people think emergency medicine is a primary care specialty,” he says. But given the number of uninsured and underinsured people who use ERs as primary care facilities, it’s important to me. “
He remembered doing an internship at a free clinic in Oklahoma City.
“And it has opened my eyes to that aspect of healthcare, the need for dignified healthcare for these people,” he said. “I realized how blessed I was and now have health insurance where I don’t have to choose between having medicine on the table or food on the table. These people are coming I don’t have the transportation to get to.” There are systematically all the barriers to seeing a doctor. “
Jacobs said the OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine focuses on treating an individual’s entire health, including mental and spiritual.
“My plan is to stay in the area and practice here,” he said. “I know of a few clinics here in town that serve underserved people.”
learn to help the helpless
Jacobs learned about helping underserved people during a medical mission in South Africa.
“We have run circumcision clinics to prevent significant HIV transmission in these areas,” he said. “We were able to provide eyeglasses and distribute thong shoes.”
During the summer of his freshman year, he worked at a mobile clinic.
“We went to the village and assembled at their school house,” he said. “We parked our car and there was a line of people because they knew we were coming.
Mr. Jacobs recalled the challenges of “village medicine.”
“In South Africa there are still cultured doctors, or what some call phony doctors, witch doctors. They treat patients with strange diseases. I told him to apply the ointment.” Seeing that aspect of medicine and working within the cultural context of medicine was different. “
Jacobs said the Luke Commission never turned patients away. “Yes, we may have been exhausted and it was dark at 10pm, but we were still going to see the patients waiting in line.”
Q&A
What made you go from Muskogee to Oakie?
“I was here. I was away for a while to attend undergraduate and graduate school. I have decided to go back to.I will not be staying here.”
What do you like most about Muskogee?
“I love the people here. In some ways, I think Muskogee has the same facets of being a big place. It’s not a small town, but it has a small town feel.”
How can we make Muskogee a better place to live?
“As a future doctor and public health researcher, I would like to see more access to healthcare. Certainly we do not have access to specialty clinics, we do not have access to primary care physicians for the public. .”
Who do you admire most in Muskogee?
“Dr. Chuck Frenwidder. He has been my clinical mentor for several years and has also mentored me in surgery. He has been a great inspiration to me in my medical career. rice field.”
What is the most memorable event that happened to you in Muskogee?
“I served as Senior Class President in 2015 and have continued to work collaboratively in my class and take responsibility in my role during such events. But we were able to unite the whole class.”
what do you do in your spare time
“I don’t have much free time during the semester. I’ll be there in. The piano’s in there. Otherwise, I’ll go out with my friends and family and have dinner or something like that.”
What if you could summarize Muskogee in 25 words or less?
“It’s a great place with great people. It’s got a great school. I’m very much behind the education I got here.”
Meet Hayden Jacobs.
Age: 26 years old.
Birthplace: Muskogee.
Education: Grant Foreman Elementary School, Sadler Arts Academy, Muscogee High School Class of 2015. He worked as an undergraduate at Southern Nazarene University. He holds a master’s degree in epidemiology from the University of Oklahoma School of Health Sciences. She holds a medical degree from Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine and will graduate in 2026.
Occupation: Full-time student.
Family: Parents, Becky and James Jacobs.
Church: Muskogee Church of the Nazarenes.
Hobbies: music, outdoors, travel.
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