Hardemans Find Medical School Love Match at GA-PCOM

(SUWANEE, GA – March 18, 2015) The AOA Intern/Resident Registration Program recently occurred and the National Resident Match Program is happening this week. Similar to a baseball draft, these programs determine where fourth-year medical students across America will spend their next three or four years learning the skills needed for such specialties as family medicine, orthopedic surgery and radiology. Throughout their studies, however, some students have found a different kind of “match.”

As freshmen in August of 2013, Nicole Hardeman née Hoag (DO’17) and Will Hardeman (DO’17) thought they would be waiting four years to get “matched.” They began studying osteopathic medicine at Georgia Campus – Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (GA-PCOM) both focused on their future careers as physicians. They were unaware that they would end up sharing the medical school experience as husband and wife.

Will Hardeman, originally from Spring Hill, Tennessee, obtained a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology at Lipscomb University and a master’s degree in public health from the University of South Florida. He left a research position at Vanderbilt University to move to Suwanee to attend medical school at GA-PCOM. Although it was tough for him to leave family and friends, he wrote in a blog post - “I was content with a life completely devoted to my career as a physician.”

Nicole Hardeman, from Bogart, Georgia, completed a bachelor’s degree in biological engineering from the University of Georgia. She noted that at the time the two met at orientation, she was focused on adjusting to life as a medical student. She remembers that they first met while waiting in line with mutual friends to receive school ID badges: “As I got to know him in line, his story continued to draw me in. I knew I was interested, but did not want to be distracted from my main task ahead. I was here for school! I decided to jump lines knowing that if he followed me, it meant he wanted to keep talking just as much as I did... and I had a follower.”

They started visiting each other’s group during anatomy lab and soon knew they were meant for each other. Accepted by each other’s friends and family, Will proposed to Nicole in March 2014 surrounded by Nicole’s relatives, many of whom had secretly come into town for the proposal.

With high expectations for their future careers and knowing board exams and residency applications were ahead of them, they decided to marry in the summer of 2014 (their only summer off during medical school). They tied the knot on July 12 and made their home in Lawrenceville. At the start of this coming summer, they will move to Rome, Georgia for clinical rotations.

“It has been quite the adventure being married to another medical student,” they express on their shared blog, “Though we don’t share the same study habits, we are both really invested in finding ways to support each other and hold each other accountable to becoming better students, and future physicians.”

To follow the Hardemans and their medical school journey, visit their blog.

About GA-PCOM

Georgia Campus – Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (GA-PCOM) is a private, not-for-profit branch campus of the fully accredited Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, a multi-program institution with a 116 year tradition of educational excellence. Located in Suwanee, GA-PCOM offers the doctor of osteopathic medicine degree, the doctor of pharmacy degree and a master’s degree in biomedical sciences. The campus includes the Georgia Osteopathic Care Center, an osteopathic manipulative medicine clinic, which is open to the public by appointment. For more information, visit www.pcom.edu or call 678-225-7500.

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