MEET LOCAL LEGENDS: By Medical Specialty

"I wanted to be a doctor since I was six years old. I heard stories of people getting sick and then getting better, and I wanted to help heal them. I also loved science and working with people."

"My father was a doctor and starting at age 13, I used to make house calls with him, helping to deliver babies. I once even stitched up a man's ear when his car wrecked outside our home!"

"I grew up in the desert and was always outdoors. I loved the creatures of the desert and thought everybody loved snakes, spiders and Gila Monsters."

"Being a doctor fulfills my dream of helping people; of making a difference in their lives."

"I became interested in medicine when I was an undergraduate. A wonderful adviser of mine took me under her wing and I went on from there, taking a biomed program in the summers to prepare for Meharry. What I like most about being a doctor is taking care of the babies, of watching them grow up."

"The most rewarding part of my job is taking care of a really sick child who gets well and goes home, and then the parents bring him or her back for a follow up and I can tell them their child is cured. That's a really wonderful feeling."

"My interest in premature babies started as a teenager, when I spent my summer vacations as a nurse's aid at a Leprosarium outside Pretoria, caring for premature babies who had been born to women with leprosy and removed from their care."