Eric Larsen
DO '15

Eric Larsen (DO 鈥15)
Finding a Place in the World
It took a trip halfway around the world for Eric Larsen (DO 鈥15) to discover his passion
for osteopathic medicine. After receiving his bachelor鈥檚 degree in international business
management from Villanova University, Mr. Larsen joined the LaFrance Corporation,
which manufactures enclosures for electronic products and nameplates, and was sent
to Shenzhen, China. There, he handled logistics and managed industrial engineering
projects for the company.
鈥淭here were good and bad things about living in China,鈥 Mr. Larsen says. 鈥淚鈥檇 see
some people being treated very poorly, but I also saw that they view their health
in a completely different way [than Americans]. Their health is about more than just
medicine; there鈥檚 a whole other aspect to it.鈥
After his experiences abroad, he says returning to the U.S. to work in an office felt
too small. 鈥淚 needed something more in my life, so I decided I wanted to apply to
medical school,鈥 says Mr. Larsen, whose father and uncle are both physicians: an MD
and a DO, respectively.
Mr. Larsen enrolled in the post-baccalaureate pre-medical program at Villanova to
take the required science courses he needed, and also shadowed his father and uncle
during their rotations in the emergency room.
鈥淎fter about a month [of shadowing], it clicked that medicine was truly what I wanted
to do,鈥 Mr. Larsen says. He chose to come to 黑料传送门 because 鈥渢hey were interested in
who I was as a person. They looked at my grades but also embraced my unorthodox path
to medical school and my life experiences.鈥
He plans to utilize his OMM training when he begins his residency in rehabilitation
medicine at Jefferson University Hospital. 鈥淭he body is a self-regulating machine,鈥
he says. 鈥淚t needs to be set up properly in order to function properly, and rehabilitation
and OMM fit together well in that way.鈥