The Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine opened its South Georgia campus on Tallokas Road in Moultrie in August.

MOULTRIE, Ga. — It’s been more than two months since PCOM South Georgia welcomed its first class and it’s been an adjustment period for the class of 2023.

As students of PCOM, all 59 individuals follow the path of an osteopathic physician, entailing courses like principles of osteopathic medicine (covering anatomy, physiology, embryology, etc.) and osteopathic manipulative medicine (learning about body structure).

It’s a learn, study, practice and repeat pattern leaving little to no time for extracurricular fun. That’s what student doctor Xavia Taylor, a Moultrie native, said.

“[In] medical school for one, we do not have a lot of time, so our schedules are really jammed tight,” she said. “You have to study every day. We always try and take little breaks and when we do, we stay amongst our class.”

But this relates to a question that’s hung on the minds of Moultrie officials and citizens alike: Is Moultrie enough to satisfy them?

Taylor answers yes.  

“Moultrie doesn’t have much but it’s home-y,” she said. “So, it being home-y, I feel like that’s exactly what we needed. We don’t need too much to do because then [we’ll] get unfocused.”

It’s the perfect fit for a medical school, she said. Between the nature the students see when they look out the window and the family atmosphere, it’s a hard sell not to stay.

Jazmoné Kelly, another first-year student doctor, had the option of choosing to attend PCOM’s Suwannee campus or its South Georgia one. She chose South Georgia exactly for the previously stated reasons.

“I visited Moultrie four times and every single time they won my heart with just the southern hospitality,” she said. “They really embraced PCOM here in South Georgia and for me that was the selling point.”

Suwannee, however, didn’t. She said it lacked the spirit, had an abundance of vehicular traffic and, mostly, didn’t have that communal atmosphere that a homesick person might need in those dire times, as for her reasons against it.

“Being out of town [and] not necessarily having immediate family here, the community has become my family,” Kelly said. “When I go into different places, they stop, speak and just say ‘Hi, how are you doing? Can we help you?’ To me that speaks volumes.”

Kelly said the Moultrie Chamber of Commerce has been a big help to the students’ integration. Its president, Tommie Beth Willis, said this is because the chamber wants to give them a home.

The Chamber of Commerce has been helping the students since the beginning via dinners and parties to give them breaks from studying or introduce them to businesses across town, and even welcome packages with utility and city office information, and maps to help learn the town.

“The whole goal of that was to help them make connections in our community,” Willis said. “We want them to feel like this is their home while they’re here for medical college.”

Beyond a home, they want these students — these future doctors — to stay in Moultrie, or at least in southern Georgia after graduation. That’s been a big problem with the region in general — keeping people here.

So far, the students love it. Daniel Horuzsko is a student doctor from Augusta, Georgia. He moved here without a place to stay but was eventually taken in by a family.

“They took me in as one of their own and that’s something that I never experienced up in the northern area of Georgia,” he said.

In Horuzsko’s philosophy, rural southern Georgia is “something special that only you can experience.” But to experience it, one would need housing, something Moultrie finds itself short of.

With PCOM South Georgia expecting at least 59 more students for its fall 2020 semester, questions were raised where they might stay.

Daniel Parrish, director of planning and community development for the City of Moultrie, said the city wants to build more houses, but it’s not up to them.

“We don’t have any input as far as the people coming in here that are spending the money [and] building the houses,” he said. “However, the city will do anything in [its] power to assist the process.”

Parrish referred to E.D.G.E., a committee of city staff leaders that helps businesses plan, expand and develop its project process, which he’s also a part of.

According to him, they’ve talked to three housing developers who are planning duplex or one-bedroom styled housing “probably in reference to the student population.”

“They didn’t say that, but it’s probably in reference to it,” he said.

There’s an interest in appeasing the need for housing, Parrish said, but it won’t be a quick fix.

“I feel like everybody is aware there is a housing shortage right now,” he said. “But when they’re looking at spending the types of money that they’re spending; they’re not just going to jump out overnight.”

The recently finished apartment complex at 841 East Central Avenue and the upcoming loft apartments by Hal Carter Construction in downtown were offered up as a solution to the shortage; nothing else is set in stone.

Parrish expects to see the developers have either a finished product or something close to it by next fall. A lot of what’s happening with them right now is answering questions and preparation.

“The three that we’ve talked to have been very eager to get started,” he said. “They’re bringing in schematics, we’re looking at them and trying to figure out the best way [to help].”

Willis said that the chamber is also preparing for PCOM’s next wave of students. Come early 2020, she said a survey will be prepared for students to find out what worked and what didn’t.

“If there’s something we did really well and they really liked we want to make sure we do that same thing again,” Willis said.”

And vice-versa. Now though, the students are enjoying their time in Moultrie and at PCOM South Georgia.