”I come from a family of immigrants, and I’m the first in my family to attend medical
school. So for me to know the story of Dr. Christy, another Black, minority woman, who did something so unorthodox, really is a motivator.
… She was a pioneer: the College’s first African American student and the first African
American doctor of osteopathic medicine. When she died, she was a widely known and
respected osteopathic physician. She healed so many, especially the poor. … You see
pictures hanging on the walls of PCOM of a lot of people who have had an impact. But
when you walk into the College and see the face of someone who looks like you, when
you see her name on a new [student housing] building, that’s very meaningful. … Dr. Christy had to be a very tough woman to be able to
go to medical school when she did [1917–1921]. One brother and her father had died
by the time she was ten. And her mother, one of the biggest supports she had, passed
away just a few years after she graduated from PCOM. Just understanding how courageous
she was, how resilient, how she didn’t let anything keep her back—I really adore that.
… I’m transitioning out of my role as the co-president of the Student National Medical
Association on campus, which works to increase the presence of minorities in medicine
as well as to help support them throughout their journey. I work for the diversity
office on campus as well, making presentations for their mentorship program. I’m also
involved in a nonprofit organization, Girls on a Mission with Ambition. I’ve talked
to students about being in medical school, and to students already in college or taking
a non-traditional route who want to get back into the swing of things. I mentor them
mainly because I didn’t have that. … When I was in college, Google was my best friend,
because I didn’t have many people in my life who were physicians, let alone physicians
who looked like me. So I had to do a lot of the work figuring out what I should study
and how to get into medical school. It’s not just about representation, but it’s about
the resources you provide. … Now that I’m here, I have a lot of people I can reach
out to, ask questions. They tell me, ‘I do this because someone did it for me, and
I want you to be able to do it for somebody else.’”
Digest, the magazine for alumni and friends of Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, is published by the Office of Marketing and Communications. The magazine reports on osteopathic and other professional trends of interest to alumni of the College’s Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) and graduate programs at PCOM, PCOM Georgia and PCOM South Georgia.
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