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Student and Faculty Profiles

Meet Sherry-Ann...

Class: 2011
Hometown: Kingston, Jamaica
Undergrad: Wesleyan University
Major: Physics
Program: M.D./Ph.D.

What moved me most about UConn was a narrative I found on-line about the South Park Inn Medical Clinic run entirely by UConn medical students. The clinic allows students from first to fourth year to offer primary care and counseling services to the homeless population in Hartford. When I read about South Park, I had just spent two weeks in the Dominican Republic volunteering in the health care field in the rural villages of Jarabacoa. My second week in Jarabacoa involved working with a physician assistant in a house that she turned into a clinic in one of the most remote villages. We saw patients with conditions from abscesses to typhoid. Most of these patients had very little money and no real transportation to get to even the rural hospitals. The greatest service we provided our patients was taking primary care, counseling, and public health talks right into their communities when they could not afford or did not have access to doctors in hospitals or other community practices. They repaid us with their overwhelming gratitude and by faithfully returning each day to listen to more health talks.

After returning from the Dominican Republic, I was looking at schools on-line and came across UConn’s South Park Clinic. It was clear that this was only one of the fruits of UConn’s curriculum for and commitment to serving others, including the underserved. I think at that moment, I knew I was coming to UConn.

Of course, UConn’s reputation for primary care and its NIH-funded Medical Scientist Training Program played a role. I am a second year M.D./Ph.D. student, which means that after about five and a half to six and a half more years, I will graduate with a dual degree that will allow me to practice medicine and engage in research as a physician-scientist.

I’ve always been interested in science, well since seventh grade—that’s as far back as I can remember. I didn’t actually realize I was interested until I won an award for my performance on my integrative science exams at the end of the year. As the years went on, my interest grew until I decided what I wanted to with the science I was learning: use it to help others. It might sound corny, I know, or at least cliché, but it’s true! Half of my friends who liked science decided to become engineers, and half of us resolved to become doctors. By shadowing doctors and medical technologists and volunteering in hospitals and hospital labs, I came to believe that I had made the right decision. Nothing excited me more than the opportunity to work with and serve people in a subject area that already grabbed my interest.

Along the way, I garnered various experiences that mix together to form quite a unique background. Many have asked me, “So, how did you major in physics, then end up deciding to go to medical school?!” The thing is I decided to go to medical school way before I declared my major in physics. I was told to major in whatever I found interesting or whatever I liked, as long as I fulfilled my premedical course requirements.

I went a step further to major in what I found challenging (physics), while indulging myself in what I found interesting (Spanish language, literature, and culture) and enjoying what I liked (singing in the gospel choir and acting in one of the theatre troupes).

These all made a rich encounter for me that helped me develop into the person I am today. And that’s one of the things I love about UConn. You are encouraged here to continue to be yourself and to continue to grow into who you are becoming. To not let the stresses of learning quell the passion you have inside to dance, to sing, to act, to paint, to make movies, to make jokes, to start a business, to DJ on the radio, to be who you are. To serve others, in any way you choose.

UConn is raising up a generation of doctors with empathy and desire to serve the underserved as well as the served in a manner that draws upon the Hippocratic thought “first, do no harm.” But also in a manner that, to me, also demonstrates another Hippocratic ideal" art is long, and life is short.” The way I look at it is this – life indeed is short. Make sure you’re proud of what you make of it. Maybe medicine is your art. Maybe music is your art. Whatever it is, make sure your commitment to your art is long and deep and that you perform it well. If medicine is your art, make sure you practice it well, since ‘practice makes perfect,’ and make sure you paint a beautiful picture with your paintbrush of astuteness and honor, so that when your short life comes to an end, it can truly be said that your art was long, your commitment to service in medicine was deep, and you performed it well to the very end.