Cole Stinebiser encountered at least one dead body — a deceased woman found in a home — during his brief career as a municipal police officer in Pennsylvania.

As a graduate student in Seton Hill University’s physician assistant program, the Hempfield native has developed a more extended relationship with Gary — a man whose remains he has dissected and explored as part of the university’s gross human anatomy course.

“It’s very different for sure,” Stinebiser said of the experience of cutting into Gary’s remains and looking for clues about his life and health. “You see the human body in a way you don’t when you’re looking at somebody from the outside.

“You can see changes in their tissues that would have accrued over their life — the things they experienced and the things they were exposed to. It’s interesting to put the inside together with the outside.”

Gary and five others donated their bodies to science and education at Seton Hill. Their gift provided hands-on experience and knowledge for 38 future physician assistants in the Seton Hill Class of 2027, as well as others who enrolled in a physical therapy course at the Greensburg school.

Kristina Serafini | TribLive A student places a rose during Seton Hill University’s 10th annual Ceremony of Gratitude on Monday, Nov. 24.  

The students and several members of the Seton Hill faculty gathered Monday afternoon in the university’s Saint Joseph Chapel to honor the six body donors. It was the 10th annual ceremony of gratitude in the physician assistant program.

“Because of these individuals’ donations, we were able to see firsthand the effects of multiple clinical conditions on the body and the amount of variation that exists between humans — a fact lost in textbooks, which focus on the most typical anatomy,” said Bobbie Leeper, instructor of the anatomy course. “Students were able to hold human organs in their hands rather than relying on textbook images to memorize.”

She added that the donors’ families “have to wait over a year for their loved one’s remains to be cremated and returned to them, to finally have a sense of closure. Despite these sacrifices, these individuals made the donation of their body so that we could all learn from them.”

The university ceremony was meant to provide closure to the students who worked with the bodies donated by Gary, Carl, Mable, Gina, Iris and William as part of the two-semester anatomy course.

The ceremony included a display of six lighted candles — one for each of the body donors — and variously colored roses, presented by the students.

Kristina Serafini | TribLive Physician Assistant students Anna Rosemeier and Chantal Nguyen perform “For Good” during Seton Hill University’s 10th annual Ceremony of Gratitude on Monday, Nov. 24.  

The program featured inspirational readings and songs, ranging from “For Good” (from the musical “Wicked”) to a “Hymn of Promise.”

Students Jack Matthews and Flannery Louden performed a dance to “Heal” by Sleeping at Last.

Matthews, a resident of Fenton, Mich., who gained experience with palliative care as an undergraduate at Purdue University, said he was apprehensive when making his first cut into Carl’s body.

“Once you get through it and become more acclimated to the whole concept, you do kind of build that relationship” with the body donor, Matthews said. “You form that relationship, so we can show them respect.”

To help ease the students into the often unsettling first experience of dissecting a human body, Leeper has partnered with Seton Hill’s art therapy program.

The ceremony included a display of flower pots the students created in an art therapy workshop. The pots were meant to reflect the gift the students received from the body donors.

“It might be stressful inside the anatomy lab,” said art therapy major Gabrielle Cummings of Uniontown. “In our space, they can connect with each other and share their experiences in a vulnerable way that feels more safe. They use the art to process those experiences.”

Since January 2016, the Seton Hill program has received bodies from about 50 donors for its anatomy class, obtained through the West Virginia University Human Gift Registry.

A study published in 2024 listed about 11,700 bodies donated annually among 72 body donation programs across 38 states and Washington, D.C.

As the final step in the Seton Hill anatomy class, students are challenged with determining the cause of death of each donor body.

“During dissections throughout the two semesters, the students collect clinical clues to try to determine the cause of death,” Leeper said. “In doing so, they learn to think about the impact of the various clinical conditions on the patient’s life.”

Initially, Stinebiser knew his body donor, Gary, only as “Donor E.”

“At the end, when you learn the donor’s first name, you start to think about how much of a life they lived,” Stinebiser said.

Kristina Serafini | TribLive Physician Assistant student Mia Young holds a rose during Seton Hill University’s 10th annual Ceremony of Gratitude on Monday, Nov. 24.  

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