Folake Adegboye didn't always dream of becoming a doctor. Even after she graduated with a bachelor's degree in biology from Kennesaw State University in 2014, it took her a few years before deciding to attend medical school. It was after she volunteered for a year at a children's hospital and worked as a scribe in an Atlanta emergency department that she put on her white coat and began envisioning her future.
However, when she first applied to medical school, she was rejected. So she tried again, but she was still rejected. But that didn't stop her and her third time proved to be her charm.
Build your medical school pipeline
Adegboye's experience is common to many medical school aspirants. In 2023, out of 52,577 applicants, only 22,981 students, or 44%, were admitted. There are many reasons, and grades and test scores are just the tip of the iceberg. However, Adegboye felt that the fact that the candidate had no knowledge of the U.S. medical school system before he started applying was a major hurdle to success.
“Part of it was that I wasn't ready at the time,” Adegboye says. “But I was also the first in my American family to apply to medical school, so I didn't know how it worked.”
Adegboye received an acceptance letter from the University of Colorado School of Medicine on her third try, which she credits in part to the people she worked with when she was a clerk in the emergency department. She hopes to build a support system for diverse students like herself who are going through the medical school admissions process for the first time.
“I'm interested in pipelines that increase diversity in medicine,” Adegboye says. “I felt that I needed a supportive environment and people who would be there for me. I also want to support diverse students in this way.”
And while thinking about how to help others take the first steps toward becoming a physician, I also focused my clinical career on helping people in underserved communities in the United States and around the world. We are also planning to build one.
Supporting underserved populations at home and abroad
Adegboye was born in Lagos, Nigeria, Africa's most populous city with 15.4 million people, and immigrated to the United States with his brother when he was 15.
Folake (center) and his family on vacation.
In Lagos, the healthcare system is divided into public and private sectors. Because the public sector is run by the government and subsidized, “in theory, patients should be able to afford everything they need,” Adegboye recalled. “It can still be quite expensive, and many places ask you to pay before you go.” The private sector in Lagos is similar to the United States, where doctors establish their own practices and develop direct relationships with patients. says Adegboye. Just like here, this is a system with built-in challenges, she says.
“You can clearly see the difference between the public and private health sectors in Nigeria,” Adegboye says. “It's very obvious. In Nigeria, classism, wealth and status are also more obvious than here.”
When she started working as a scribe in the emergency department, she noticed many similar disparities.
“What I was exposed to was [our underrepresented] We have a large population,” Adegboye said. “Because they don't have insurance, the ER is a place of last resort, often the place they go for primary care. This is an unpleasant reality of the U.S. health care system. So when I got into medical school, I especially wanted to work with those people.
Although she hopes to someday support health care in Nigeria, her immediate plans are focused on the United States, where she hopes to work at a safety-net hospital or community health center and serve underrepresented communities. This was an important reason why she chose to do a rotation at Denver Her Health after her third year of medical school.
“I believe everyone has a right to health care. Working at Denver Health allows me to get to know the system, find ways to help patients, and truly support Denver's communities, especially underserved populations. I feel like I was able to learn from physicians who want to serve the community,” Adegboye says.
heart for children
To make her long-term plans a reality, Adegboye hopes to train in both internal medicine and pediatrics. Her work at Children's Hospital of Atlanta and Denver Health led her to pursue her passion for working with children. She says they bring a kind of joy to the clinic experience that adults don't always get.
In particular, she remembers the time she examined an 8-year-old boy who was sick and crying. She started giving him stickers every time she wanted to touch him. In the end she was able to calm him down and finish her exam. It was this innocent simplicity that drew her to her pediatric practice.
“When you give kids stickers, by the end of the visit they love you,” Adegboye says.
