Adam earned high school and college credits at the same time through Lane’s partnership with the Baker Early College program.
Dual enrollment program credits apply both to high school diploma requirements and college graduation requisites.
Eighteen-year-old Adam Atman was born and raised in Eugene and attended early grades at Oak Hill School, located right next to Lane Community College main campus. "I joke that it took me eight years to cross the street!" says Atman.
Adam earned high school and college credits at the same time through Lane’s partnership with the Baker Early College program. Dual enrollment program credits apply both to high school diploma requirements and college graduation requisites.
Atman, who wears a jaunty bowtie, won a full-ride scholarship to Johns Hopkins University this spring. He plans to study medicine and become a cardiologist. He credits his time at Lane, along with many years of hard work, for his success.
"I got a great foundation to my education that will really propel me forward," he says. "Skills like critical thinking are so necessary and I think Lane was definitely integral to developing those."
Atman remembers his father telling him that he could discuss the ankylosaurus dinosaur while his playmates were still saying "apple." After realizing he didn't like dirt, paleontology no longer seemed like a viable option. An early interest in birds led to biology and chemistry. "I thought I'd be a biochemist and do Ph.D. research," Atman recalls. "But I'm a people person and I wanted an interpersonal connection that I found in medicine." Plus, he says, the experience of his grandmother passing away from a heart condition motivated him to want to contribute to the body of knowledge on America's No. 1 health risk.
While at Lane, Atman served on the college’s finance, facilities, and faculty councils and also as a student government senator. "It really gave me the whole perspective on how the college executes its goals, not just from a student sitting here but also as a student leader," he says.
Atman gives "a big shout out" to Lane's math and science resource centers which he says are "beyond words helpful." "I see literally every day how many people they help, and they helped me understand and ignite my passion for science even more than it already was," he says. "It's just an amazing resource center and it's a very collaborative environment" and the “one-on-one contact that made it so great," Atman says.
Atman leaves for the John Hopkins Krieger School of Arts and Sciences in Baltimore in late August.