DAVIS, Calif. -- For four straight seasons as an Aggie, Connor Airey had a simple job on the football field: stopping other people.
The linebacker from Chino Hills amassed 187 tackles during his collegiate career, including a team-leading 37 in the five-game 2021 spring season – a total that helped him earn his first All-Big Sky Conference award. Airey also posted a career total of 14.5 tackles for losses, which included eight sacks. Not bad for anyone, especially a former offseason walk-on.
When the shortened spring season came to a close last April, Airey's job pivoted from stopping people to helping them go. Later that month, he began working as a certified nursing assistant for the family-owned Alderson Convalescent Hospital in Woodland. Airey's primary role is to aid patients with ADLs, or activities of daily living: getting out of bed, showering, grooming, or getting to appointments for physical therapy or occupational therapy.
"It was definitely eye-opening when I first started," said the fourth-year neurobiology, physiology & behavior major. "The biggest thing was seeing the needs that people have. It's why I wanted to get into this profession, it's to try and help others. I find a joy in being there for others when they might not have anybody there to help them out or whatever the circumstances may be. That's been the coolest thing: just being there to be their support system toward recovery or for long-term care. I want to make it as enjoyable as I can."
Alderson is a family-owned care center, opened in 1958 by Leon and Placida Miguel and passed along through multiple generations. Coincidentally, the owner's brother played football for Aggie head coach Dan Hawkins back at Willamette – a connection Airey learned during his interview.
The C in the abbreviation CNA stands for "certified," a process Airey fulfilled as a California Department of Public Health requirement to work in a healthcare facility. He completed a course during the summer of 2020, then passed a test administered by the American Red Cross. Airey also underwent a brief orientation at Alderson upon his arrival in April, then began work soon after.
Airey's service to Alderson serves as another prerequisite for his ultimate goal of becoming a physician assistant. A common minimum standard for the top PA schools is 2,000 hours of clinical experience, with many places truly requiring twice that. A job as a CNA, Airey discovered, was one of the quicker ways to start gaining that experience, since the certification course took less than three months. In contrast, certification for such roles as a phlebotomy technician or an emergency medical technician can take up to a year or even longer.
His top choice is UC Davis' own Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing, although he intends to apply to schools both inside and outside of California, in part to maximize his opportunities. "I know of people who applied to 20-plus places and got into one," he said. Also on his short list and closer to his hometown of Chino Hills are Chapman University in Orange; and the Western University of Health Sciences, which has a campus in Pomona.
At Alderson, he works 24 hours per week as part of his regularly scheduled shifts, plus he is on-call during the weekend hours. Airey also finds himself as a relative "hot commodity" on the staff, given his size and strength. After all, the 210-pound linebacker posted such weight room stats as a 330-pound hang clean, 450-pound trap bar deadlift, and a 315-pound bench press. As such, he outsizes and outmuscles the typical staff member at Alderson. Given a CNA's daily routine – which includes providing literal physical support for patients among its many components – Airey's stature is certainly a plus.
Airey's march toward gaining relevant work experience did not begin at Alderson. At the end of his sophomore year, he worked as a physical therapy aide at Physical Edge, co-owned and run by former Aggie pitcher Mat Moore. The opportunity to participate in an internship comes from the design of the offseason team's calendar: Coach Hawkins holds his offseason practice during the winter quarter, specifically to free up the spring quarter for travel or work experience.
"I did that [Physical Edge] back when Coach Hawk and the entire athletics program started talking about Aggie EVO. The spring quarter was an opportunity to do it," Airey recalls.
Following his internship at Physical Edge, he earned an opportunity to teach a human gross anatomy lab course during the Winter 2021 quarter. Serving as a lab aide "deepened his knowledge" of the subject but also provided a glimpse to another career option within the health sciences. "That was a really cool experience, being on the other side of things," Airey said. "You don't get to see as much as a student as you do working behind the scenes."
Airey also worked for the campus police department as an Aggie Host, in part to explore possible career avenues. In fact, he now half-jokingly thanks UC Davis for not having a straight business major (the university's closest offering is managerial economics). It allowed Airey to start out as undeclared, and put more forethought into his career plans.
Being an athlete, and more specifically a football player, he had suffered his share of injuries and thus knew his way around an orthopedist's office. That largely planted a seed in his mind, and he found himself looking up related topics just to satisfy his own curiosities. When he got to UC Davis, a basic physiology course solidified his interests in the biological sciences.
"It was one of those things where I read extra for it, something I wouldn't have done for another course," Airey says. He began taking prerequisites for PA school at that point, then declared as an NPB major after his sophomore year. This is when he truly started to carve out his career path.
Airey also credits Aggie EVO, the department's student-athlete outcomes program, for helping him along the way. Even the basic EVO checklist has helped him build up his resume and work on his personal statements. The incredible value of networking has also stood as a key preparatory tool: outcomes advisor Adam Zedonis, football coach Dan Hawkins and women's lacrosse coach Suzanne Isidor have provided him with names of key people. Airey's girlfriend, Sorana Larson, was Isidor's leading scorer this spring. As it turns out, Isidor's next-door neighbor is a PA, providing Airey with yet another helpful voice in his corner.
"I don't feel stressed out or feel like I need to hurry up and get things done. I've already thought about it and had it on my mind. It's pretty cool having EVO as an opportunity, and the guys who really want to put effort into it are going to get a lot out of it," said Airey.
That said, Airey has decided to graduate this spring and – sorry, Aggie fans – opt out of returning for a fifth season this fall. The spring finale against Eastern Washington became his final game in uniform, culminating a long, arduous school year of uncertainty. He and his teammates effectively existed in a bubble, removed from family and friends, not knowing if or when the season was getting a green light. The commitment to what became the 2021 spring season compares to no other year that any recent student-athletes have experienced. The team's winning record and national ranking was a satisfying reward, but few Aggie fans realize the devotion and sacrifice by coaches and players just to have a season at all.
"I think I was ready to move on mentally and physically, and I want to get the process moving," Airey said. "But it was definitely a hard decision."
For that matter, doubling the minimum of 2,000 clinical hours is equivalent to two full years of full-time work, meaning Airey's time with Physical Edge and Alderson will still only represent a bite of what he will need to truly strengthen his application for PA school. From his conversations with advisors and his own experience with the process, the average of applicants is closer to 27-28 years old. As such, many people first enter the work force then decide a few years later to enter PA school.
Just from his first month at Alderson, Airey saw the need for front-line help in the healthcare industry. "I see how much the nurses have to do and how hard it is," he said. "I don't know if it's like this at every hospital, but at most of them, it's hard to get enough staffing. So it's about working overtime and double shifts."
"I want to help people. I find a lot of joy in doing that. It fulfills something I didn't know I had in me besides sports."
ABOUT UC DAVIS:
Centrally located between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe, over 700 student-athletes across 25 teams enjoy an unrivaled undergraduate experience at the fifth-ranked public school in the country.
Ranked annually in the nation's top 10 in diversity and students' social mobility, UC Davis and its innovative Aggie EVO system helps student-athletes develop passions, connect with a comprehensive network of alums and industry leaders, gain real-world experience and thrive as a young professional following a successful launch to full-time employment or graduate school.
