Heart Behind the White Coat | Folasade May, MD, PhD
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In this program:
Dr. Folasade May shares how her upbringing influenced her medical career choice in this Heart Behind the White Coat (HBWC) program. Watch as Dr. May explains how her experiences observing medical missions had an impact in her decision to pursue a career in medicine, places where she connects with patients, and her advice for BIPOC students considering the study of medicine.
Transcript
Dr. Folasade May:
I first knew that I wanted to practice medicine, actually quite early. I had the incredible opportunity to accompany my father, who's also a physician on medical missions, doing global health work when I was in my teens. So I spent some time in West Africa working in medical mission sites, where they were doing operations and taking care of patients who had a lot of pretty serious medical problems. I at that time wasn't sure if I was going to parlay that into a career in public health or in medical or clinical, I wasn't sure at that time whether I was going to parlay that into a career in clinical medicine or public health.
So I did have a little bit of time where I was writing the two, but I've had this amazing journey that's allowed me to combine both a public health degree and a clinical medicine MD in doing this great work that involves clinical care and research.
I've been really blessed with incredible people who have impacted my career and who've influenced me to date. I still go back to my father as being probably the most influential person. He was the first person in our family who had a career in science or medicine, and just growing up under him, seeing how he would change people's lives, I would go on rounds with him in the hospital on Saturday morning. And patients would shake my hand and thank me for my dad saving their lives. And so for me, that had a large impression on me, and I knew that this was a career where I could be happy by servicing others, and that's something that in every aspect of my life, I've always enjoyed making other people happy and best enjoying their lives. So I think that was a big impact on my career and going into medicine, and then I also had a grandfather who was very inspirational for me. He was not in science, he actually was more of an English literature and European literature specialist, but he impressed on me at a very young age the importance of education and excellence, and I always strive to be like him.
Honestly, the motivation to do the work that I do on a daily basis comes back to the patients and the individuals that I feel I might have the opportunity to impact through my words and through the research that our group does. I'm just so...so shocked when I meet individuals who say they didn't know about their risk for colorectal cancer, people who didn't know it was the number two cause of cancer deaths in America, but that if they participated in screening, they could potentially save their lives. So I always like to say If I can give a talk like this, or go to a church or to a barber shop or to a community health center, and convince one person to get screened today, I've done my job because it's really just that connecting with individuals that I find joy in and that I hope that they find a medical benefit in.
I think I'm kind of an open book, so I think most people know most things about me, but I think one thing that people would be really surprised to learn about me is that...I'm getting a little older now so it's less often, but I used to actually do a lot of outdoor exploring. So when I was in high school, and even when I was in college, I was a very athletic person, still kind of athletic now, but I played three sports in high school. I even played a sport in college, and I actually did backpacking in the wilderness. I took a three-week trip in Wyoming where I was out in the wild for three weeks with the backpack and a group of individuals that I was camping with. I find a lot of joy in just kind of connecting with my body with being outdoors, with running, so I think that a lot of people who see me in a professional space don't realize that that's part of my life as well.
I think that any of my mentees or any young trainees who meet with me have heard... I have a lot of advice for people who are aspiring to pursue medicine or research or colorectal cancer research. I think the main one that I try to tell people, especially as students of color, so Black and Brown individuals, people who are from low income or other disadvantaged backgrounds is...don't take no for an answer. I think that I grew up pretty privileged, I had a father who was a physician, I had exposures to access and access to things, but I think even with that background and having someone to look up to who was already in the clinical space, I got told no a lot, I got told that I couldn't do that, that maybe there were other careers that were more suited for people like me. And I would just charge everyone who has a passion for working in the space, whether it's medicine or science or research, to go after that passion and to convince people that they're wrong. Many times I think that as an African in research or science, people don't see individuals that look like us in this space, so to them it doesn't match their prototype. And the tendency then is to tell people to try to pursue something that is more like them, that looks more like their prototype. I don't think that needs to be the case. Part of what I do is mentor a lot of people who are interested in science and interested in research, and what I try to impress on them is that if you really have a passion for this work, we need people like you, and we can make you...we can help make you very successful at doing the research.
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