Evan Soward: Firefighter, family man, future physician

BY BRENNA DEMPSEY

Executive Producer

Evan Soward is a remarkable student, and there is no shortage of people who would agree.

While he attends Tarleton State University as a full time student, he is also a volunteer fireman and works as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) for another fire station and an emerrgency medical service (EMS) station.

He also makes sure he takes the time to prioritize his wife, Summer Soward, and continues to build on their marriage – all while studying for the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT).

He is majoring in biomedical science and minoring in chemistry and kinesiology. With this degree, he is focusing on getting into medical school and becoming an osteopathic physician.

“I picked it because I thought it was the most encapsulated thing to get me to where I wanted to be long term, to be a physician, to get into med school with all the courses I needed. I’ve definitely learned a lot from it about the human body from the ground up,” Soward said.

Soward is applying to go to the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine (TCOM) at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, where he will graduate as a licensed Physician.

“They have the osteopathy focus, which I really like. They have a strong emphasis on rural medicine, and Summer and I want to long-term stay kind of close to this area. We can move around a little bit, but we both like it around here, so rural medicine will probably be the way to go,” Soward said.

The drive and dedication Soward has for achieving these goals is inspiring and often goes unnoticed due to his respectful and humble attitude.

Dr. Joe Priest with the School of Kinesiology’s Department of Health & Human Performance, was happy to share his thoughts on Soward.

“Evan was a student in my exercise electrocardiography course, which is not easy, and with my 28 folks in class, I’m throwing details out there, and I’m laying their ears back, and it’s a lot of information,” Dr. Priest said. “He’s understanding everything, and that’s kind of unusual because I’m famous for repeating myself 14 times. He hears it, he learns it.”

Soward places a lot of importance on his education, and he wants to learn as much as he can to become the best physician possible.

“He kept up so well with the technology I was talking about that is new to our kinesiology majors and really challenging to them. He understood it the first time through, and so he stood out real quick as what I call an overachiever,” Dr. Priest said.

People often associate the term overachiever with someone who is stuck up and wants to stand out, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.

“He volunteered in our champions lab to administer cardiovascular stress testing, and I mean, didn’t hesitate one minute, stepped in there, learned the computer network, learned the software necessary for capturing the electrocardiogram,” Dr. Priest said. “Just took over very nice, very low keyed. You hardly know he’s there, but he’s taking care of things, just a wonderful addition to our School of Kinesiology.”

Soward took any opportunity he could to volunteer, get more hands-on experience and share his knowledge.

“He volunteered again when I had invited nurses over from Health Sciences to come over and see our operation, where we’re testing cardiovascular health,” Dr. Priest said. “And he says, ‘I’ll do that.’ So, he took the lead in training the visiting Health Science nurses to introduce them to this technology that we do over here.”

Soward is in a research group that focuses on drug delivery systems for cancer treatment,  to develop a less toxic and selective system for  medication and ultimately offer a less abrasive alternative to chemotherapy.

“For cancer treatments, you want something that’ll slow down and kill cancer cells but leave healthy cells alone. So that’s essentially what we do. We have a plant kind of delivery system that we chemically bind an anti-cancer agent to,” Soward said. “We applied it to cells, and we just measure how many cells there are after the course of three days, and then, specifically, if they’re killing cancer cells and not killing healthy cells, because that’s what we want.”

This kind of research will be valuable to Soward as he moves into the medical field.

“It’s cool, just to be able to do research that you know might really make a difference in people’s lives, especially using a plant as the delivery system. It’s a lot cheaper and more readily available long term. You want to be able to give those treatments with people’s food,” Soward said. “And theoretically, it’s a lot less toxic. It’s killing just the cancer cells, not our body cells, because traditional methods of chemotherapy, in a lot of ways, is just throwing a carpet bomb in the body, killing a whole lot of stuff. So you want that selectivity with cancer treatments, and that’s what our research is.”

At the Division of Research, Innovation and Economic Development (RIED) Research Symposium, Soward and his group won first place for the undergraduate faculty-led research presentation on their drug delivery system.

The undergraduate winners were invited to Austin, Texas, where they got to present again and interact with other scholars from universities and individuals within legislation.

Dr. Rajani Srinivasan, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Department Head of Chemistry, Geosciences and Physics, oversees this research group.

“He does the work till he gets the results, and if you criticize or say something, he takes it positively,” Dr. Srinivasan said. “He’s able to apply what he has learned. Of course, he is a brilliant student. He was in my organic chemistry two. He made an A in my class. So wonderful. Result-oriented, hard-working.”

His dedication does not stop in the classroom and carries over into his work as an EMT and firefighter.

“He would work days and nights over there but still show up and do the research. And here also he stays late. They are all here until 10 or 10:30, he has been there,” Dr. Srinivasan said. “For some of the results and for some of the experiments, you cannot just leave in the middle, and say, ‘Oh, it’s eight o’clock, or it’s five o’clock, I’m leaving.’ That’s hard. You cannot do it. So, he’s very dedicated.”

As an EMT, Soward is often one of the first responders to various accidents and other issues people have.

“I enjoy EMS and medicine in general, because we get to make a real, impactful difference when people are at their most desperate,” Soward said.

The training for that will also translate into his career as a physician.

On top of his desire to do his best, he also finds learning about health and the human body engaging and inspiring.

“Kinesiology, it’s interesting, because you learn a whole lot of stuff about how the human body works, like looking at anatomical structure and electrons flowing from point A to point B and all that stuff. But Kinesiology is a lot about how to apply some of those things to address overall health. So that’s really interesting, and I think it’s going to make me a better doctor down the road,” Soward said.

When it comes to why he is motivated to do this kind of work, he looks at the bigger picture of American health.

“I’ve done a lot of looking into the kind of practices that Americans have today, like how we treat things, how we eat, a lot of things like that. There’s so much in our healthcare system that I just don’t think is the best way to go about certain things. So, I think that is kind of something else that pushed me to be a physician,” Soward said.

He wants to help inspire others to think about the underlying issues of health problems.

“Obviously, one physician can’t change or fix every single problem in America, but, you know, just being a beacon of change, like starting with one patient, helping them, and then over time, contributing to larger improvements,” Soward said.

The practical applications are important to him because he wants to promote long-term help and healing without using as many medications.

“I believe having a physician who thinks, ‘Is this really the best thing to do?’ or talks about nutrition and puts that at the forefront, instead of just resorting to, ‘Oh, what drug’s gonna fix this?’ Because that drug is going to have side effects that will cause you to need another drug, and then, it just becomes a spiral that can get out of control,” Soward said.

His faith also plays a role in his outlook on health and inspires him as he works towards his goals.

“Thinking about being a physician who is able to more innately heal people, depending on the way God designed our bodies, and using that knowledge and that focus first, and medicine, of course, is there when you need it. Because there are obviously times that we need it, but not to just immediately snap our fingers, resort to that,” Soward said.

He wants to follow his faith wherever it leads him, and the medical field is where he finds himself.

“At the end of the day, the reason I want to be a physician is because I want to serve God in that way. Paul said, in everything you do, honor the Lord, whether you eat, drink or whatever it is,” Soward said. “And so, the way that I want to honor God is to protect the body that he’s given to us and try to help people in the most direct and impactful way that I can.”

This is why he felt connected to osteopathic medicine and the protocols that are involved in it.

“Osteopathic is the way I want to go, because it focuses more on pretty much exactly what I just said, realizing that the body is designed to heal itself; it focuses on how the structure of the body correlates to its function,” Soward said. “And looking at the position of your muscles and bones and figuring out how to improve someone’s life just using the body, not just blasting them with drugs.”

To keep his motivation and drive himself forward, he remembers his goals and the reason he wants to achieve them.

“Keeping in mind my end goal, that goal of becoming a physician, and everything else just falls into place. There’s so much that goes into it. I mentioned MCAT and getting good grades and all that, but there’s so much they want to see in people,” Soward said. “I think that keeps me going and just reminding myself of all the effort that has gotten us to here, and the tiny moments, spending time with Summer, especially that, it helps a ton. Gotta grab every moment we can.”

There are many things to be proud of when it comes to the energy and effort Soward has put out, and his professors have confidence in him as he takes the next step by going to medical school and becoming a physician.

“He is just so capable, so calm, so focused. I just think he’s gonna succeed in whatever he wants to do. And of course, TCOM is gonna be pretty challenging, five-year med school, but he’ll graduate as a full-fledged licensed physician, and I’m so happy for him,” Dr. Priest said.

The future is bright for this graduating Tarleton student.