Student Spotlight -- Nicholas Wilhelm

Senior Nicholas Wilhelm is a public-relations major with a pre-med concentration. This may seem like an unusual pairing, but the way Nick explains it, it seems like a natural choice.

Interviewed by Katie King, Bianca Johnson, Kathryn Lord and Alyssa Parker

You've attended New York University and Northwest Vista College in San Antonio. So, what brought you to UT?

Well, a simple answer would be that UT is a truly great university. Having attended NYU, I can say that courses at UT are just as rigorous as top out-of-state schools. There was also one large personal issue that led me here as well. My father died of lung cancer during my first college semester, and I needed to return to Texas for my own personal well-being. However, I also switched majors from business to public relations at that time. And, honestly, UT is considered to have a better communication school.

Public relations and medicine are quite different fields. What about them interests you?

Public relations is interesting to me because it is so universally applicable. In the context of medicine, good public relations can lead to effective preventative efforts as well as more effective doctor-patient communication. I have always been more skilled in math and science, and I really feel that majoring in public relations has greatly increased my ability to communicate with other people on any level, something that many doctors could be better at.

How much longer will it take you to finish the two degrees?

With the premed concentration it will only take me an additional year, and that is only because I started the premed sequence later in my undergraduate career.