He Came to Briar Cliff With a 2.0 GPA — Now He’s Headed to Medical School

By Eli Meschko

Media & Communications Coordinator

“Embrace the change. No matter how hard you try, change is going to happen — lean into it.”

Logan Hartnett shared these words during his commencement speech at Briar Cliff’s 2025 graduation.

The advice, while directed at his fellow graduates, was something he had lived by throughout his own undergraduate journey.

Hartnett, a native of Sioux City, did not follow the same path to college as many of his peers. He graduated from North High School in 2010 and chose to join the Army, where he spent the next seven and a half years.

Afterward, he transitioned out of the Army and began contract work with the military. He knew this wasn’t what he wanted to do in the long term. As he reflected on the impact he had made while in the military, he realized that he wanted to become a doctor.

“When I was in the military, I had a high-paced job where I saw the results of what I was doing,” Hartnett said. “When I decided to transition out of the military, I wanted something that kept me engaged and where I could actually see the impact I was having.”

Of course, to become a doctor, he first needed to earn an undergraduate degree. While this seemed like it would be a somewhat easy transition, it was a little more complicated for him.

Not only had it been roughly a decade since he graduated from high school, but he had finished with a 2.0 GPA. Still, he knew that if he was going to switch careers, he’d have to be all in — no matter his doubts.

His choice to attend Briar Cliff was pretty simple. He remembered coming to campus in high school as part of a group visit and seeing that the university had a human cadaver lab. Since he wanted to go into medicine, he figured it would help him in his studies.

He also noted that a major reason for choosing The Cliff came down to its smaller class sizes. The smaller student-to-teacher ratio was enticing because he figured the additional academic support would be beneficial to him as a nontraditional student.

So, he enrolled at Briar Cliff. With plans to attend medical school, he chose to major in biology with minors in chemistry, psychology and Spanish.

He went in with pretty low confidence. It didn’t help that his first couple of classes were statistics and biology. But as he continued along, he realized that all of his classmates were having the same struggles. This kept him motivated to continue striving to do better each and every day until it all finally clicked.

“The whole time I was just trying to figure out if I was doing well enough,” Hartnett said. “It was really when the biology and chemistry department asked me to start tutoring other students that I thought that I was actually doing the right thing.”

Now that he has officially graduated from Briar Cliff as a member of the class of 2025, he plans on attending the Kansas College of Osteopathic Medicine in Wichita, Kansas.

He hasn’t yet decided on a specialty, but he’s leaning toward emergency medicine or family care. He finds both fascinating because they’re not so focused on one area — you have to know a lot about different subjects.

He is drawn to the idea that he’ll have to look at the big picture. He won't know who will walk through his doors each day or what kind of treatment he’ll need to provide. But he’ll be able to have an impact that he can see.

“There’s no single fix to help solve communities’ problems,” Hartnett said. “So, when it comes down to me being a doctor, I want to be one part of the solution that helps make a community stronger and better.”

While he has his professional goals in mind, he’s also thinking ahead to charitable work he can do outside of his profession. Although he’ll be helping people as a doctor, his main personal objective is to help prevent people from ever getting to the point of needing any medical intervention.

He also wants to explore ways to help more people access higher education. Not just those who can’t afford college, but those who can’t afford to not work because they need to help provide for their family — like he once did.

“Those are the people who, if we empower them, are going to make the biggest impact on society,” Hartnett said.

As he reflected on his nontraditional path to and through college, he couldn’t help but be thankful for his time at Briar Cliff. Life at a small college helped him connect with his professors on a deeper level, while the student body never made him feel out of place.

Even though his full journey is still unfolding, he hopes his story — from a 2.0 GPA student to a future medical student — serves as proof that success is always within reach.