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Scholarships Help Students Become Great Doctors
“I
was a fat kid and not happy about it. My mother, who’s a nurse, got me
into gymnastics.” Today,
Jenny Osborne, MS-2, is fit, trim and muscular. She says she loved the
sport’s requisite leaps, turns, and back flips. “It was a
thrill to be up there, to be
weightless.” By junior high the Pineville, WV native had started to master
the balance beam. One day, however, a routine dismount turned ugly. “Instead
of sticking it, my left foot got stuck between the floor mats,” she said.
“I twisted my ankle pretty good.” On crutches for six weeks, Jenny faced
other challenges that summer. “My mom got sick, and I was her nurse.
It’s why I want to be a doctor.” Ten
years after being diagnosed with cancer, Jenny’s mom works full-time as a
home health care nurse. Her
father is a foreman in a deep mine near Welch, WV. Brother Chris graduated
from WVU School of Medicine last May. Today he is a pediatric resident at
Children’s Hospital in “We
competed a lot as kids. He’s the math genius; I’m the athlete.”
Jenny’s quick to point out that severe scoliosis and a mild case of cystic
fibrosis that went undiagnosed until WVU med school explain why contact
sports weren’t an option for Chris. “He’s brilliant. Chris took every
calculus course in Several years ago Jim and Art Gabriel, founders of the fabulously successful off-price retail company that bears their name, established the Gabriel Brothers Medical Scholarship. Jenny is one of the recipients. “A
scholarship means the world to me. The first year of medical school is
really, really tough. There’s so much to learn, so much pressure. I
didn’t think I could do it. Then I thought about Mr. Gabriel. I said to
myself, ‘Jenny , he thinks you can do it, and I think you owe it to
yourself, to Chris, to Mom and Dad, and to him to keep on trying.” The
doubts are behind her now. “I’m really looking forward to the white coat
and to being a |
