OUTREACH AND DIVERSITY
40
STRIDING TO MEDICAL SCHOOL AT FLORIDA STATE
By the time medical students Ciara Grayson, Jacqueline Hanners, Cydney Terryn and Nora Waryoba showed up for class, they had been part of the College of Medicine’ s pipeline system for many years. That doesn’ t mean the pipelines were clogged. Just the opposite. It means these long pipelines were doing their job: patiently and smoothly developing a diverse array of promising students from middle and high schools in rural, minority and other typically overlooked communities. These four FSU medical students were part of SSTRIDE – Science Students Together Reaching Instructional Diversity & Excellence. Every year, stories about the College of Medicine’ s best-known pipeline program are encouraging. And 2017 was no exception. In all, 97 percent of SSTRIDE alumni currently being tracked have gone on to college, where 56 percent of them have majored in science, technology, engineering, math or medicine. Ten of them have enrolled in the College of Medicine. Grayson, Hanners and Terryn are the newest members of that group. Grayson, a Tallahassee native, followed the pipeline from high school SSTRIDE to undergraduate USSTRIDE, where she served as student coordinator while pursuing a degree in exercise physiology at FSU. In 2017 she was awarded her master’ s in biomedical sciences through another pipeline, the Bridge to Clinical Medicine program, and then began med school.“ I’ m the first person in my family to pursue medicine,” Grayson said.“ A lot of us minorities don’ t have the resources, connections or mentors to guide us through the process, and the programs provided me with that. Some of the mentors I had in high school were in SSTRIDE themselves, and they’ re in residency now. It’ s so inspirational to see that.” Watching her sick grandfather struggle to receive medical care ultimately pushed her to explore medicine as a way to give back to minority and underserved communities.“ My grandparents lived in Lloyd,” said Grayson.“ It’ s a rural community, so when my grandfather was sick, he wasn’ t able to travel to go see his oncologist and different doctors.” Like Grayson, Terryn had a knack for science and was drawn from a young age to the medical field. Her initial exposure was removing splinters for lots of workers at her parents’ construction sites in the small town of Crestview. Soon afterward, she became involved in SSTRIDE.“ The program really kept my interest by making the connections to medicine and assigning special projects separate from the rest of school,” said Terryn.“ They brought in speakers with success stories that were inspiring and made our goals seem very attainable. Receiving that guidance at such a young age really built my confidence, even if I didn’ t realize it at the time.” SSTRIDE is where Terryn met Hanners. They traveled the pipeline together from middle school in Okaloosa County, through their undergraduate careers in USSTRIDE, and ultimately to the College of Medicine. All three credit SSTRIDE with fostering a sense of belonging not only within the medical field, but as part of the FSU community.“ The experience itself led me to really want to go to FSU because I knew they cared about me,” said Hanners.“ SSTRIDE was very welcoming. It wasn’ t a competition. They truly wanted me, and everybody, to succeed – and I felt that since eighth grade.”
( l-r): Jacqueline Hanners, Ciara Grayson and Cydney Terryn.