2009 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship
for Community Service
Scholarship Winner
Elizabeth Alexandra Carroll
UT Southwestern Medical School
2nd Year
Elizabeth's Essay on Community Service
Everyone hears stories about medical school, about the insane workload, the crazy hours spent studying, the endless memorization, but I swear that during the application process you tell yourself "it can't be that bad, really" over and over and over until you start to believe it. Because if you thought about it honestly, you just might not go. Somewhere in all of this I am also supposed to be fitting in time to make new friends, do community service, talk to and visit old friends, work out, tutor kids, babysit to make money, and pursue hobbies. I came here because I wanted to do the Doris Duke Clinical Research Scholars program. This institution is world renowned for its research and I had absolute tunnel vision about being a part of that. Then I went to orientation and heard a presentation by a fourth year student who was heavily involved in community service. He made these points in his presentation: you’re tired, you care (even though sometimes you pretend that you don’t), you want to help people, and you will not be able to study all the time. Then he talked about signing up to go sort food at North Texas Food Bank that Friday afternoon. I signed up right away. That afternoon spent in a large, unairconditioned warehouse in South Dallas with six other students would be my introduction to a lifestyle of service at Southwestern.
Over the past two years I have volunteered at the student-run free clinic on a regular basis, been on the planning committee for the annual health fair, coordinated a toy drive, helped start a mentoring program at T.J. Rusk Middle School, and participated in various other small projects along the way. Last year, after being ill first semester, I had a chance to commit extra time to the annual United to Serve project. I put all of my efforts into building a medical museum to complement the health fair. The idea was to have exhibits that represented a tour of the human body from head to toe; a friendly approach to learning about health concepts that was fun and interactive. What emerged was beyond my imagination. There were seventeen interactive exhibits explaining the five senses, the cardiovascular system, the gastrointestinal system, the skeleton, and DNA. More gratifying than just seeing it all come together was seeing the incredibly positive reaction of the attendees to the health fair.
That is the true beauty of service, the reciprocal nature of it. Every person I reach out to helps shape me and my experience as a volunteer. My first patient ever was embarrassed about being there and about having to ask for help at an indigent care clinic. The memory of her crying with relief when we came to talk to her about her treatment plan reminds me to this day how hard it can be to ask for help and to see the dignity in every individual that walks through the door. I remember every patient I have ever seen at the free clinic, for each has had some impact in their own way, and I’m grateful for everything they have ever taught me.
Community is neighbors, but community starts with friends and family. Last year I had the privilege of being able to be of service to my family by helping out some nights with my grandfather’s hospice care. Being there every Wednesday night for months, I learned more than I could have imagined. When medicine doesn’t cut it, sometimes all you can do is hold someone’s hand. Sometimes the best thing you can do is listen. It is a real gift to be that person to comfort and care for another as they work out the last months of life. He gave me a gift that will follow me through my entire career, the ability to sit, to listen, and with patience, just to love.
Whenever I’m feeling overwhelmed, as I did during anatomy first year and swore every time I turned on the radio it played the song with the refrain, “And everyone knows I am in over my head over my head”, volunteering brings me back to earth, reminding me why I am here, why I am doing this, and where I want to be. The best part of it is that I don’t have to wait to become a doctor to be the person I want to be. This is my community; I feel strong ties to it, having grown up only five miles away, and I want to work as much as I can to make it a place I want to live in. I was once a middle schooler in DISD and I am so excited to be able to give back to the students at Rusk because I know from my own experience how important it is to have someone telling you that you can be anything, do anything, if you try hard enough. I would not be here if I had not had a mentor in my life telling me just that. The kids that I can help today will not be there when I graduate, they will have moved on. So I know that no matter how overwhelmed I feel, I still feel a great commitment to them, to this community, and to service in general. No matter how hard I'm working (or not working), I absolutely love this process of becoming a physician.
Medical school fascinates me in a way school never has before. Not only do I have a chance to learn more than I ever thought possible, alongside all of this amazing learning I have the chance to act upon my value system and live out the life of service I want to pursue. Everyone writes that entrance essay saying in one way or another, “I just want to help people”, and I have been amazed at the opportunities that present themselves over and over again to reach out to the community we live in to make it just a little bit better.
