DR . WHO Jennifer Brey , MD by KATHRYN VANCE
When Dr . Jennifer Brey sees a challenge , rather than retreat , she actually gets a bit of a thrill overcoming tough odds .
She grew up in Louisville in a family of blue-collar farmers and coal miners , and her only experience with medicine was seeing her pediatrician for annual visits . But with parents who instilled the value of education , her mom a school librarian and her father an engineer , Dr . Brey and her two sisters felt a natural pull . Her younger sisters later followed in her footsteps – one is a pharmacist in Lexington and the other is a pediatric urologist here in town .
As a student at Eastern High School , she excelled at all of the sciences , but physics really struck her . As would be seen in her future specialty , she liked the mechanics of physics and solving problems in that unique way . At the University of Louisville for undergrad , she was pre-med but also took on the added challenge of joining the swim team and became captain in her senior year .
“ I knew that I wanted to go to medical school and that I needed to be able to pay for school , so between strong academics , all the scholarships I had and the fact that I knew I could swim Division I , UofL fit all of those criteria ,” she said .
The schedule for a DI athlete and pre-med student was tough . She remembers one semester in her sophomore year when she ’ d wake up for a 5:30 a . m . swim practice , go straight to classes , go back to swim practice in the afternoon and then finally to a chemistry lab
that ended at 11 p . m .
When it came time to apply to medical school , she had been dating Darren , a student at the J . B . Speed School of Engineering at UofL with two years left , and didn ’ t want to leave him behind , so she stuck with the Cards . The transition to medical school , contrary to many people ’ s experiences , seemed to free up her schedule some .
“ Those first couple of years were actually a little bit easier than undergrad because I had more free time since I wasn ’ t swimming anymore . It was a lot more school work than I was used to , but I didn ’ t have quite as much to do otherwise , so it was different .”
But of course she couldn ’ t just have the competition of medical school , she needed something else to fill her schedule back up – something with a tangible score . During her second year , she started the first ULSOM intramural sports team .
“ We competed alongside the other teams like sororities and whatnot . It was fun , but it was also something to keep my mind occupied ,” she said . Because of her swimming experience , she was excluded from that event , but she competed in everything else she was eligible for . “ We did all the team sports – tug of war , putt-putt , really any sport I could get someone to go out for . We actually won during my second year of med school , then during third and fourth year , I handed off some of the managerial aspects , but I still played any of the sports I could .”
When third year rotations started , she felt a little unsure of what to expect , as she ’ d done minimal shadowing before medical school .
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