For one thing, his mom, Madelyn Hodson, was the one who actually did all the work required to earn a Master of Medical Science degree. Though looking dapper, dressed in a black robe and graduation cap, Callan was just along for the ride.

He was also only 2 days old.

After birthing her first child earlier than expected, Callan’s brave mom pleaded for permission to check out of the American Fork Hospital’s maternity ward the following day. It was that important for her to be able to walk at graduation the next morning with her cohort of future physician assistants from RMU — with baby in tow, it turns out.

“It was unexpected,” Hodson said. “We were planning on getting induced Friday night after graduation, but I went into labor on Wednesday, and now he’s here.”

Courtesy of RMU

Oh, baby! The story gets even better.

In a fun coincidence, Hodson was the seventh student in RMU’s 2026 graduating PA class of 49 students to welcome a baby into the family during the past year. In addition, three other PA students are expecting babies to arrive in their families shortly after graduation.

It’s why “Future RMU Falcon” baby onesies were a popular graduation gift this year.

“There’s something in the air. It’s been crazy. It’s been fun, though,” said Hodson while holding her swaddled newborn. “A lot of my friends are pregnant, too. It’s been great to go through that together.”

Fortunately for them, women’s health and obstetrics were covered in their healthcare education. And they can’t blame professors for the extra homework.

“It’s been really exciting,” said RMU PA graduate Dan Curtis.

Curtis and his wife, Tippe, also welcomed a baby, Miles, into their family in the final semester. The Lehi-based couple admitted it was tough on Tippe to be home alone during parts of her pregnancy as her husband completed some remote rotations, including as far away as Florida, to wrap up his PA degree.

In a fortuitous twist, they found out they were expecting their first child shortly after Curtis completed his required women’s health rotation. He was grateful for the first-hand experience he received with pregnancy and childbirth in that clinical setting as part of his master’s program.

“That worked out pretty good,” he said. “Tippe had a lot of the same questions, so that was really nice being able to answer them.”

Most of the PA babies were born during the clinical portion of the students’ grad school journey. That made logistics interesting for the expecting female students.

“Every pregnancy announcement the PA clinical team received necessitated a change to several rotation placements,” said RMU Clinical Recruitment and Retention Manager Maren Mather. “For some, it required switching their surgery rotation to an earlier time frame so that the student wouldn’t be on their feet in late pregnancy.”

They also kept expecting mothers at clinics closer to home so they could attend their own medical appointments.

“The RMU clinical team spent a lot of time to make these adjustments, but it was so worth it,” Mather said. “And we are so happy to report that all of these PA students graduated on time with their cohort.”

Hodson felt fortunate that everything went smoothly for her as she did rotations in Utah, Idaho, Oregon and Texas. She didn’t have to reschedule her clinicals.

“We got them all in. It actually was not too bad,” she said. “Luckily, I didn’t get any morning sickness. It was just a good pregnancy.”

Curtis admired how one classmate gave birth early in an on-campus semester but quickly returned to remain on schedule for graduation.

“That would have been really stressful,” he said. “I can’t imagine doing that. She’s really strong for doing everything she needed to do.”

The Hodsons added some extra excitement to the final week of the final semester after Mom went into labor early. In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, only 48 hours before graduation, she texted the PA program to announce that the birthing process was underway. She also told them she still wanted to take her final exam that was scheduled that morning.

“I was thinking about going to do the test still. I thought, ‘I’m only dilated to a nine and I’m not having contractions yet, so I could do it,'” she said, smiling. “I ended up just going to the hospital.”

Along with the postponed postpartum test for the newest mom, the extra parental leave for pregnant students also required some rotation make-up time between semester breaks.

“The PA program was awesome,” Hodson said. “When I told them I was pregnant, they were super supportive of it and told me that they would work around it.”

It certainly made for a fun graduation story and cute photos. But Hodson will have to describe the graduation experience to her son, who unknowingly shared the spotlight with his mom.

“He slept through the whole ceremony,” she said, laughing. “It was great.”

Jody Genessy is the senior content writer for Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions.