MEET LOCAL LEGENDS: By State

"I knew from the age of two, when I learned to talk, that someday I would become a doctor…"

"I am a people-person who really likes science and helping people, so being a doctor combines both. The longer you practice, however, the more you understand that doctoring is an art as well as a science. My advice to young girls is 'if you want to make a difference, being a doctor is not easy, but it is certainly worth it!'"

"When I was in college, I worked for a community organization, helping with their food coop and writing health articles for the newsletter. But I saw that the people needed more than food; that's what spurred me on. I love math and my mom told me to go into computers. But that's not what I wanted to do. I was absolutely interested in health and healing, and being an advocate for universal health care. That's why I went on to medical school."

"The idea of being a family doctor in a small town always appealed to me..."

"My uncle was a physician and my father a medic during World War II, plus he was chairman of the college biology department and a pre–med counselor. It was very powerful to watch my uncle treat his patients. They both encouraged my interest in medicine. And as an African–American, I was deeply moved by seeing our people not be able to get the level of specialty care that others got!"

"I always wanted to take care of people, to help people and being a doctor was the way I wanted to do that, plus a couple of doctors were friends of my family…"

"I started out in psychology wanting to understand the workings of the human mind and the human body. When I became a physician, I knew I wanted to help others toward being physicians."