Page 10 - Scholarship Report 2020

Scholarship Impact

Making Student Dreams A Reality

Katie Peagler servant-leader. There was stresses of the finances
involved with medical
no better option than to at-
Lithonia, GA tend the #1 ranked medical school. I can focus more
3rd-year Peagler school for social mission. on learning every day and
not as much on the loan
Why did you choose Morehouse money I am receiving that
Can you tell me a story
School of Medicine? It has always felt about something that has will have to be paid back.
like home for me. I participated in happened during medical It positively affects not only
pipeline programs from 8th grade school that would illustrate me, but my future family.
until I graduated from high school. what the MSM experience
MSM groomed me into the student is really like? Our professor offered What is your take on the nation-
doctor I am now. I knew that MSM to have a review session for class. wide shortage of Black doctors? We
was a place I could continue to grow Sunday worked best for everyone, so urgently need more Black physi-
as a future physician and servant he came to campus and stayed with cians. Our nation’s history has led
leader. us for hours. Following the review to explicit and implicit biases that
The institution has a proven
track record of producing compas- session, he ordered Popeyes for the have placed black people in dispro-
portionately unfair circumstances
sionate and competent doctors and class. This may seem minuscule, medically, socio-economically, and
I wanted to be included in that num- but it illustrates the compassion and educationally. Statistics show that
ber. I also wanted to learn and serve family atmosphere that are charac- doctors are more likely to take care
right in my backyard, the communi- teristics of MSM. of patients who look like them. More
ties I spent my childhood in.
Has the financial burden of black physicians means that more
medical school been particularly dif- black communities will be taken
What first interested you in your
program of study or medicine? My ficult for you? Medical school is ex- care of to help alleviate some of the
health disparities that we face.
great-great grandmother was a mid- pensive and the idea of the amount
wife in rural south Alabama. I lis- of debt I have is troubling. However, If you could say or do one thing
tened to countless stories about her I know that my passion is to serve to thank your scholarship donors,
and had the opportunity to read her the underserved. I come from an what would it be? This donation has
notes and look through her bag of underserved community. Simply further instilled in me the impor-
put, there is no amount of money
instruments. From that experience, that will steer me away from helping tance of investing in the future. As
combined with my love for biology underserved communities. an established physician, I will pay
and helping others, I knew that I it forward by investing in medical
wanted to become an OB/GYN.
Please share how scholarship students’ education, just as scholar-
Was the institution’s mission support helps you — academical- ship donors have invested in me and
important to you, when you were ly, professionally, and personally? my peers.
choosing a medical school? Yes. I Scholarship support alleviates the
come from an underserved com-
munity. My family hails from
rural south Alabama, which is also More black physicians means that more black
underserved. I have seen, firsthand, communities will be taken care of to help alleviate some
the effects of living in areas where “ of the health disparities ... As an established physician,
access to quality food, healthcare, I will pay it forward by investing in medical students’
infrastructure are disparate. My education, just as my supporters have invested in me
personal experiences play a big role and my peers.
in why I want to be a physician and