Article by John Meriwether, 3rd-year medical student
To most people, the term “medical school” evokes thoughts of library stacks and hospital wards, long hours studying large books, and sleepless nights reviewing notes before exams.
Medical students thrive on the stress to succeed. They are fueled only by their love of medicine and their desire to lead a team in caring for others. Few things will distract a medical student from this drive. The death of an alumna who defined the ideas ‘love of medicine’ and ‘drive to succeed’ did just that.
Doctors told Regan Robinson Young she had advanced colon cancer following bouts of abdominal pains during her second year of medical school. She took a semester off to receive treatment, but returned to finish her medical degree despite being told she only had a short time to live.
Young continued chemotherapy while learning how to work with and treat patients through her third and fourth years of medical school. She told few patients and coworkers about her cancer, saving that knowledge to empathize with and inspire other cancer patients. Young passed away mere months before graduation.
Only through true passion could she have continued the long hours and intense focus that medical school requires. Her life defined what every medical student states they have -- the desire to care for the health of others. In order to honor her love of medicine, Young’s classmates set up a scholarship in her name.
Scholarship accounts require large balances to fund an annual scholarship. The Regan Robinson Young Scholarship Fund is supplied through medical student fundraising efforts. The scholarship was finally awarded in 2009 thanks in large part to an event organized by medical students -- the Gumbo-Chili Showdown. The event raised over $15,000 for the Regan Robinson Young Scholarship Fund.
Organizing an event as large as the Gumbo Chili Showdown requires substantial amounts of time and effort. The committee organizing the event is comprised of 1st to 3rd year medical students at USA. The students learned to maximize their time by doing much of the legwork when classes were cancelled and when clinics ended early. Still, with the long hours required in the hospital and in the classroom, helping organize the Gumbo Chili Showdown took away from the medical students study time and free time.
“Whenever I feel that the stresses of medical school and life are too much, I think of Regan and how much more she had to deal with and yet she still chose to continue with school,” said Patricia Hudson, a medical student who helped organize the event. “Her strength lends me strength.”
Grant Zarzour, another medical student who helped coordinate the event, said the goal is to have Young be a lasting influence on all of the students at the College of Medicine. “As the event continues to grow,” he said, “we look forward to the chance to fund multiple scholarships in her honor.”
The University of South Alabama College of Medicine students would like all of Mobile to join them as they celebrate Regan Robinson Young’s life and spirit. They dedicated months of effort last year to make the Gumbo Chili Showdown a success, and they will continue to work hard to make the event a successful tradition.
To find out more about the Gumbo Chili Showdown and how you can ssupport this cause, visit http://www.gumbochili.com/ .
