Dr. Andrew Petzold embodies UMR values in his work as an associate professor in the Center for Learning Innovation.
Dr. Andrew Petzold is a busy guy. If you ask him about his work — teaching in the classroom, researching the best ways for students to convey complex information or leading efforts in creating new curricula — it won’t take long before he’s talking about the exceptional qualities of University of Minnesota Rochester (UMR) students. Maybe that’s because everything he does comes down to one focus he keeps front and center: serving students.
“Students who come to UMR tend to be very inquisitive and driven. They are passionate about their potential for learning and passionate about their prospective fields. They interact with challenges without backing down from them. They are not just willing to go out and explore the unknown — they’re eager to.”
These have been hallmarks of the University and its students from the very beginning, says Dr. Petzold, who has served as a UMR faculty member since 2010. He was a student himself, working toward a doctorate in comparative molecular biology at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, when he first learned about UMR. “I spent time at Mayo Clinic and happened to see the first vice chancellor talk about this exciting and brand-new concept university starting in Rochester. It was looking at education in a different type of way. The unique approach to learning attracted me and kept me sticking around.”
That unique approach is especially critical now, he says, as the health care landscape has transformed into a completely new terrain. “Health care is changing and has been ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, both in how we interact with health, and also how health interacts with us.” This includes the ever-connected metrics we can get from smart phones and watches, to how we interact with health care practitioners in a hospital room. Artificial Intelligence is also changing the way health exists, he says. “There are current research studies using AI to examine changes in vocal tone and other aspects of speech and linking them to heart conditions. The fact that that can even potentially happen is both amazingly cool and slightly terrifying.”
This new terrain requires today’s health care students to embrace new ways of thinking and practice, something UMR students are well-equipped to do, he says. “It’s something our students need to be comfortable with — going into the unknown and being prepared to answer questions we haven’t even asked yet. That requires a nimble student from an intellectual point. They need curiosity and willingness to not know what the future is going to hold.”
Just like health care, higher education and today’s students have also changed. In his role as director of curriculum exploration, Dr. Petzold works firsthand to create opportunities for students that will best fit the shifting needs. “UMR has taken a variety of aspects from the traditional university and switched them around,” he says, describing how the program builds on a well-founded base of education and allows the student to truly explore once they’ve decided what their path will be. The Capstone experience supports this process and student success coaches give students invaluable support and resources.
The Get Forward Faster initiative is the latest development to address the national challenges in higher education, particularly of student debt and finding work after graduation. The program creates a number of routes to allow students to earn a degree and begin work in a more streamlined way. The College-in-3 program accelerates the undergraduate degree into three years and shifts some of the degree requirements into experiential learning fulfilled by internships. The curriculum was intentionally designed so students can step their way through in less time while saving money through paid opportunities and graduate with skills that make them immediately hirable.
The preparation these students receive helps develop their skills for the “behind-the-scenes moments of health care,” says Dr. Petzold. Areas these graduates are ready to support include supply chain management, patient education and clinical research.
The results are promising: Students have been offered jobs while still in their internships. “It’s a cool experience that in and of itself is a metric of success,” Dr. Petzold says of the internship. “Those students are also instrumental for helping design other protocols and the ways in which Mayo Clinic approaches internships in a number of departments.”
The internship also helps students discern their career choice, he says. “Some realize that this is exactly what they’re looking for; others realize this is not for them. This is a better thing to do in college than after you graduate. In many situations, students get so myopically focused on the career they’ll get after graduation. Getting more experience through internships or otherwise is better for their general outcome and their mental health.”
Does the compressed timeline make earning the degree more challenging?
“To an extent yes, to an extent no,” says Dr. Petzold, though he notes that it’s not like working a 40-hour week internship and then taking classes on top of it. There are embedded breaks and more support systems like student success coaches. The cohorts are kept small, too. The first cohort of 10 graduated in December 2024, with the next cohort set to graduate this year. A number of them were hired immediately after graduation.
The new programming grows from an existing trend among UMR students. Within the greater student body, a significant portion of students already graduate in less than four years. That’s due in part from transferred credits from College in the Schools or AP exams, as well as the structure of the degree that allows students to focus on what they take. “The way our degree, a Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences, is structured allows students to explore more than they would in a traditional setting. They have the opportunity to go and experience so many different things when they’re in upper division courses, and it all counts. They can dip their toe in. They’re not still stuck taking all the classes if they change majors. They can dabble around and find what works for them.”
UMR continues to explore and expand additional Get Forward Faster program offerings. Those include accelerated programs in environmental health, physical therapy, MRI, integrative health and well being coaching, surgical first assistant and more. Beyond accelerated programs, UMR coordinates admission to postgraduate programs for early assurance programs in occupational therapy, nursing, pharmacy, respiratory care and physician assistant.
Dr. Petzold’s research focuses on students and developing best practices for them to convey complex physiology and immunology information to diverse audiences. “I approach the classroom as a living laboratory. I can research and apply results immediately and directly to the curriculum. It’s fun.” It’s also effective. He was recently named the American Physiology Society’s Anne Crecelius High Impact Scholar Award and is currently working to create a primer on how to conduct education research for physiologists. “It’s truly taking advantage of the uniqueness of UMR’s focus on education research.”
Off campus, Dr. Petzold is just as busy with many different interests. He is an active father to Ivy, 10, and Cora, 7, both of whom dance. “I am mostly a dance dad, for better or for worse,” he jokes. His weekend can be spent watching multiple dance rehearsals and baking.
Written by Felicia Schneiderhan
Read more stories from the Fall 2025 Alumni Magazine: The Kettle.