Eric Laywell, Ph. D., assistant dean for Admissions, second from left, visits with Ann Marie, Jimmy and Mary Beth Brown after Ann Marie’ s Match Day celebration in 2024.
From a rural town in Florida, three children from one family admitted to the College of Medicine
By Patrick Crowley FSU College of Medicine
Hosford, Florida, population: 650 Liberty County population: 7,955 Liberty High School graduating classes: fewer than 100
Number of students from one Hosford family at the College of Medicine: 3
Getting into a graduate program to pursue a career in medicine is tough— and that applies to Florida State University’ s Doctor of Medicine degree program as well as its School of Physician Assistant Practice, both housed in the College of Medicine.
Meet the Brown family, whose roots run deep in rural Hosford. They skew all the odds when it comes to getting children admitted to College of Medicine— two, Jimmy and Ann Marie, graduated with their M. D. degrees, and Mary Beth is completing her Master of Science degree in Physician Assistant Practice.
All three were Liberty County High School class valedictorians, attended Chipola College in Marianna to earn their associate degrees and then matriculated to FSU for their undergraduate and professional degrees.
When you talk to each of them, as well as to their parents Doyle and Beth, you learn they attribute their accomplishments and work ethic to three things:
Faith. Family. Community.
“ My parents were very diligent about taking us to church, instilling in us a good foundation as far as a love for the Lord, a love for education, a love for community,” said Ann Marie( M. D.’ 24), who is in the second year of her Family Medicine residency at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare.“ And my hometown means very much to me. I would love to go back and live there one day.”
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