The Hopkins section of The Women’s Network (TWN) held a virtual lawsuit with Women's National Basketball Association subordinate and aspiring doc Erica Ogwumike connected Oct. 31. Ogwumike spoke astir her loyalty to her athletics and aesculapian studies.
Ogwumike grew up playing hoops and received a assistance to play astatine Rice University successful her hometown of Houston, Texas. During her studies, she shadowed doctors astatine the Texas Medical Center and recovered a emotion for their collaborative situation and elaborate studies. She yet decided to prosecute the pre-med way and graduated with majors successful Health Sciences, Policy Studies and Spanish.
“There’s each these antithetic specialties moving together, each doing thing for their optimal goal,” she said. “It’s conscionable similar basketball; I emotion the collaboration and the teamwork that [doctors] are doing.”
In her last twelvemonth of school, the COVID-19 pandemic forced Ogwumike disconnected the court. Around the aforesaid time, she was accepted into aesculapian schoolhouse astatine the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and drafted to play with the Minnesota Lynx.
In 2020, Ogwumike started her aesculapian studies virtually portion traveling to grooming camps to play with the Nigerian National hoops team. She past qualified for the Tokyo 2021 Olympics and returned to schoolhouse conscionable earlier her 2nd year.
Throughout her aesculapian schoolhouse journey, Ogwumike said she feels encouraged to spot much number practice wrong her field.
“There was a C-section that we were doing, and each azygous doc and caregiver successful that country but for 1 was an underrepresented number and a woman,” she said. “There are immoderate specialties wherever you bash consciousness similar you are the bulk sometimes, which is truly interesting.”
Ogwumike besides described her hardships and setbacks, emphasizing that the hard enactment pays off.
“Sometimes [the patients] thatch you much than you thatch them. It’s truly chill to ticker them go your household and person a longevity benignant of narration with them,” she said.
In effect to a question astir the champion portion of proposal she has been fixed passim her career, Ogwumike highlighted the value of realizing your strengths. She recognized that it tin beryllium hard not to comparison yourself to radical doing akin things but emphasized the value of realizing however overmuch you person to connection yourself.
Ogwumike encouraged students to instrumentality vantage of the opportunities offered by the University.
“Your opportunities are limitless here,” she said. “You each are successful a large presumption to truly bash immoderate it is you want, arsenic agelong arsenic you person optimism, productivity and confidence.”
When asked astir her top accomplishment, Ogwumike shared that attending to patients and knowing their needs made her emotion for the sciences turn adjacent further.
Ogwumike’s existent specialty involvement is dermatology owed to the ocular learning and tactile aspects of the career. She hopes to enactment with skincare oregon hairsbreadth attraction companies to assistance successful creating products.
In an interrogation with The News-Letter, senior Ria Jha noted that Ogwumike's passionateness for medicine and thrust to execute her goals reminds Jha of her own.
“Hearing her communicative of wherefore she chose going into medicine alternatively of continuing arsenic an jock truly made maine deliberation astir wherefore I privation to spell into medicine and what truly matters to me,” she said.
Senior Yordanos Degefe expressed her admiration for Ogwumike’s determination and accomplishments successful an interrogation with The News-Letter. She shared that Ogwumike inspired her to prioritize aesculapian schoolhouse alternatively than prosecute a way that is expected of her.
“Erica advised america to beryllium productive, assured and ever person a program arsenic we strive to execute our goals,” she said. “She shared that she isn’t ever assured 100% of the clip but ‘fakes it ‘till she makes it.’ This position was truthful inspiring due to the fact that it truly emphasized that everyone experiences moments of self-doubt, adjacent an Olympic athlete-medical student.”
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