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Thomas Curow, a member of the Class of 2023 at the
USA College of Medicine, shows off a spotted bass
he caught while kayak-fishing on the Tallapoosa River.
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Thomas Curow lost his mother to breast cancer before the age of 5. Then, nine years later, his grandmother died from lung cancer.
As Curow begins his second year of medical school at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine, he plans to pursue a career in oncology. He wants to be there for other families who are coping with cancer.
“I know that’s it’s a hard situation for any family. It was for my family,” said Curow, who is an officer in the medical school’s the oncology interest group. “I want to be the personable, kind doctor that people want to go to in the worst situations.”
The Birmingham native doesn’t shy away from adversity. After considering engineering to follow in his father’s footsteps, he chose to study medicine despite having a fear of needles serious enough to pass out. He persisted after being wait-listed for medical school and overcoming the shock of the workload it requires.
“Some medical students didn’t have to work very hard in undergrad. It wasn’t like that for me,” said Curow, who graduated from Auburn University in biomedical sciences. “I worked my butt off during my junior and senior years. I didn’t take a gap year, so there was no break; but it was a good thing.”
Medical school, he said, was much more difficult than he expected. “It hit me hard at first. It shellshocks a lot of people,” he said. “But after a while, it was wonderful. I loved it.”
An avid outdoorsman, Curow recalls a defining experience when he was 19 and working as a boat driver north of Vancouver. During an emergency, he became part of a search-and-rescue team that spent eight hours a day in a wakeboard boat off the coast of Canada until the effort was called off.
“I felt like it was my responsibility to be there for people who had a hard time,” he said. “I had dealt with a lot of death by that time in my life. Not everybody has.”
Like his medical school classmates, Curow wasn’t able to participate in research projects this summer because of COVID-19 precautions. He had been looking forward to working on an immunotherapy project in a lab at the USA Health Mitchell Cancer Institute when it was announced that no medical students would be allowed in the clinics or labs, at least for the time being.
So Curow spent the break volunteering and shadowing oncologists in Mobile and Alexander City. He went kayak-fishing, and devoted time to woodworking and leatherworking. He also was able to hone his skills at Rocket League
– a video game of soccer but with rocket-powered cars
– in which he ranks in the top 3 percent of players in the world.
In July, Curow plans to join the orientation team to help guide the incoming medical students. USA, he said, is a good fit for him because of the College of Medicine’s small class size and the close interaction that students have with faculty members.
“I had heard from other graduates that the faculty really supports the students,” he said. “It’s true. I can go to any faculty member and ask them, ‘How can I do better? Can you help me with this?’”
