ALuMnA proFiLe
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Making the Most of Med-COR By Mary Ellen Zenka
24
KeckMedicine
| Winter 2012 Issue
Medical Center, Department of Emergency Medicine in Brooklyn, N.Y. “I love the pace of the ER, and that everyone is different with a wide range of medical issues for me to handle. It’s never dull, and every day I continue to learn,” she says. After her residency, Martinez hopes to return to her community for her medical practice. Her goal is to help heal and educate people – many of whom don’t have insurance and use hospital emergency services for their primary care. Without the Med-COR program Martinez knows she would have traveled a different path. “I am so amazed that I’m a physician,” she adds. “It’s an honor to have people trust me and put their health in my hands.” •
Med-COR brought the dream and the means of becoming a physician to Claudia Martinez, M.D.
Photo courtesy of SUNY Downstate Medical Center
neighborhood of Boyle Heights, Keck School of Medicine graduate Claudia Martinez, M.D., didn’t have dreams of becoming a doctor. In fact, her dreams didn’t even include college, as none of her relatives had ever attended one. Her family struggled financially – her father was disabled and her mother earned modest wages as a seamstress. All six family members squeezed into a one-bedroom apartment and tried to make ends meet from day to day. Then Martinez heard a presentation about the USC Med-COR Program during a seventh grade science class. She didn’t fully realize it then, but it was a life-changing event for her. Founded in 1970, the USC Med-COR Program provides structured academic enrichment to help disadvantaged students and students of color in the Los Angeles Unified School District better compete in mathematics, science and English, with the goal of admission to medical schools. Med-COR also provides SAT preparation, a career day, a California College Tour, a summer hospital jobs program and more. After that first presentation, Martinez actively embraced the Med-COR program during her years at Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School in east Los Angeles. She spent her weekends at USC’s University Park Campus. “Doctors and other professionals from various medical specialties lectured each Saturday,” she explains. “Then we all received tutoring support to ensure that we kept our grades as high as possible. I was exposed to fields I never knew existed. As a young Latina, I didn’t know any of this was within my reach.” During her free time, Martinez volunteered at Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center, logging in more than 1,000 hours doing a variety of jobs. She had grown up near the center and was impressed that so many people cared for those in need. Thanks to her start in the Med-COR program, Martinez graduated from California State University, Northridge, with a bachelor’s degree in biology, then from the Keck School in May 2011. She is currently in her first year of residency at the SUNY Downstate
GrowinG up in the Los AnGeLes