Chapter 02: Encouraged to Get an Education and Leave a Small Town

Chapter 02: Encouraged to Get an Education and Leave a Small Town

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p>Dr. Escalante talks the value of education in her family and the encouragement she received from her parents to a good education. She tells a story about her mother opening savings accounts for her children, to be used specifically for a college education.

Dr. Escalante next talks about two woman who mentored her in high school, confirming that she had the ability to excel and encouraging her to become a doctor. She explains what she found exciting about a medical career. She finishes this segment with memories of her two mentors and their responses when she sent them each a copy of Legends and Legacies: Personal journeys of women physicians and scientists at MD Anderson Cancer Center, a collection of essays by women physicians and scientists at MD Anderson.

Identifier

EscalanteCP_01_20140603_C02

Publication Date

3-6-2014

City

Houston, Texas

Topics Covered

The Interview Subject's Story - Personal Background; Personal Background; Inspirations to Practice Science/Medicine; Influences from People and Life Experiences; Experiences Related to Gender, Race, Ethnicity

Transcript

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

]+So tell me about your decision to go the medical school. You went—well, actually, first, we haven’t talked about college. So you went to Nicholls State University in Thibodaux. Am I saying—

Carmen Escalante, MD:

Thibodaux.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Thibodaux, in Louisiana, for your BS in chemistry, and you got your degree in ’81. And tell me about your choice of that college.

Carmen Escalante, MD:

Well, you know, back then I didn’t apply to any out-of-state college or anywhere. I didn’t know you could get scholarships and go there. That seemed foreign. Our guidance counselor at school—you know, most of the kids in my high school class didn’t even go to college. And so I was worried about money, but I applied to Nicholls and I got a full academic scholarship, and actually, my two teachers told me, “If you want to go to medical school and you’re worried about money—. They had a good track rate of people that had graduated there into the state medical school. And she said, “Go there.” And that one, all my tuition, everything—in fact, I lived at home so I even made a little extra money, a few hundred dollars, so it paid for my whole first four years, and it was convenient. And I worked at the hospital to help pay for, like, my car insurance and gas and things like that, and I worked summers. My first summer after college, I worked selling shoes at Sears. (laughs)

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Now, did you take the job in the hospital because of your interest in medicine?

Carmen Escalante, MD:

Yes, I took that one—actually, that happened a couple of—I was in either my second or third year of college, and I knew my local physician. He lived down the street from us. He was a family physician, and so I’d asked him if he had any jobs at his office for the summer, and he let me replace—someone of his people went out for two weeks, so I replaced that person for a couple weeks, just kind of doing odds and ends.And then he talked to the operating-room manager, and she had an opening for what they called back then a ward clerk. So you’d schedule the surgeries and kind of be a gofer. I mean, I did a little bit of everything. I helped put away the surgical instruments in the rooms after they were autoclaved. But it also gave me access to the surgeons, so they would let me come in and watch and show me different things, and so it was a great experience. I started a summer, but then I continued to work after hours with my college schedule, so I was working part-time while I was going to school.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

As you look back on that work experience, how do you feel that that enlarged you? You know, what lessons did you take from that?

Carmen Escalante, MD:

Well, I mean, it gave me a sense of what everybody was doing, how people worked together, teamwork. I mean, in the OR—or then it was in the OR—it gave me an opportunity to meet other physicians and see what they did, because they had all kind of different surgeons, and they knew I wanted to go to medical school, and so they made time for me, you know. They would talk with me or they would ask me, and so it allowed networking. Or even back then, I guess I didn’t realize the importance, and I was kind of shy. I was kind of quiet. And it also was responsibility, you know. I had committed to being there, so after school I’d bring my books with me, because sometimes it was quiet, everybody left, and I was back there by myself. I’d answer the phone and schedule surgeries. So I’d study. Depending on the day and what was going on, sometimes I’d have time to study and do some homework.But, you know, it was a responsibility. I had to be there, so if someone said, “Oh, after class, can we go do this?” you know, I had to go back. I had a job.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Yeah, yeah.

Carmen Escalante, MD:

But it also let me have some extra money that some of it I saved because I knew I had to go to medical school, and some just paid, like, for my gas and my insurance and, you know, some spending money and things like that.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Now, when you were in your undergraduate program, your degree’s in chemistry. Why chemistry as opposed to bio or any of the other—

Carmen Escalante, MD:

Because of my chemistry teacher.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

[unclear]. (laughs)

Carmen Escalante, MD:

And it was a more rigorous curriculum.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Oh, was it?

Carmen Escalante, MD:

I mean, almost everybody in premed was going into biology because, you know, it wasn’t quite as tough as chemistry, but I was definitely—my chemistry teacher had made an impact, and I had taken the two AP whatever classes, so I placed out of some of the early chemistries. And I felt it would be more rigorous, and I wanted a challenge, and so that’s why I chose chemistry [unclear].

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

So “rigor” and “challenge” are a couple of words you’ve [unclear]. (laughter)

Carmen Escalante, MD:

Yeah, thrown around. I don’t know. After I started, I was like, “Oh, did I really want to do this?”

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Yeah, but that says something interesting about you. I mean, tell me about that. What is the rigor and challenge thing for you? What’s [unclear]?

Carmen Escalante, MD:

Well, I mean, I didn’t want to just get by. I mean, I think biology would have been easy, and I’m not saying they didn’t have some hard classes, because I took, as electives, like, virology and a few of the biologies, but I had to take physical chemistry. My friends didn’t take it. I think some of them might have taken quantitative analysis, but I don’t think it was required. I took a lot of maths with the chemistry. I was three hours away from a minor in math, which was not required in chemistry, but I took linear algebra and all the calculus. And I liked math. I really loved it.So it wasn’t quite as challenging in biology, and I guess I wanted to distinguish myself or maybe prove to myself that I could do it. I had to study. I mean, I was not a person that could sit in class and get it. I mean, I had a few of those in medical school with me; they never had to study much. But whether it was because I was just so obsessive to make the A, I studied. I worked very hard for those grades. (laughs)

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Well, it sounds like you enjoyed the intellectual high-wire act, though, [unclear].

Carmen Escalante, MD:

Oh, yes, yeah.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

[unclear] very intense things.

Carmen Escalante, MD:

You know, I thought about if I had to do it over again, you know, I never applied to any of the Ivy League schools. I didn’t know about those things back then. But, you know, everybody looks at the college I went to and says, “Ah, it was just a little college. That’s maybe why you did so well,” and, you know, I always question whether I’d have gone to a more prestigious college, would I have done the same. I don’t know, you know. I don’t know.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

But, you know, who cares? (laughs)

Carmen Escalante, MD:

At this point, yeah, exactly, except those people that have gone to those, sometimes they tend to, you know, think they’re better.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Yeah. Oh, I’ve been there too. I understand that.

Carmen Escalante, MD:

You know what I mean?

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

I do know what you mean. I do.

Carmen Escalante, MD:

But I graduated first in my high school class and first in my college class with a 4.0, and, you know, I felt really good about that, and not because—I think it was more personal, more for me than anybody else, to prove to myself that I could do it, more for my self-confidence, that, you know, I really could do it. But then when I got to medical school, it was like you’re not the cream of the crop anymore.

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Chapter 02: Encouraged to Get an Education and Leave a Small Town

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