A Journey Forward From My Village to Medical School
Joshua Foromera 2013 – Karsh International Scholar Written by Joshua Foromera How it started
It was back when I was a little kid in the Chivi rural district in Zimbabwe. I used to walk a long distance with my grandmother to go to the nearest clinic. It was frustrating when we got there only to find that the physician would not be coming. My grandmother had back pain, joint pain, failing sight and a plethora of other ailments. Watching her struggling to walk back to the village without medication was always heartbreaking for me. So, I decided that I would be her doctor some day. I actually started to believe myself. Unfortunately, my poor grandmother died in 2005 before I could be of any help to her, but my experiences with her keep me going to this very day.
Fear
To most of my classmates, my path to medical school was fairly straightforward, but I do not see it that way. When I graduated high school in Zimbabwe, I went to the University of Zimbabwe’s college of health sciences for almost a year before financial and political problems forced me to drop out. When I came to the United States I was apprehensive about medical school and I never came out as a premed during my undergrad days. Dean Sue Wasiolek encouraged me to pursue what I wanted. I confided with her that I was worried
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