For Susie Reyes, preparing to go to medical school meant more
than studying for the MCAT and filling out applications. As a
mother, Reyes also had to reserve time for her daughter.
Those commitments, paired with eight years of undergraduate
study, were not enough to deter Reyes from making it to the David
Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
“I actually decided I wanted to go to med school 13 years
ago,” she said. “It’s something I always wanted
to do. I think that being a mom, I sort of realized I have a family
to support ““ that’s an even bigger motivation to
accomplish it.”
Of the 178 students who completed their medical studies this
year, 10 were mothers, said Charlotte Myers, director of student
affairs at the School of Medicine. That number is “absolutely
not” typical, Myers said.
Myers has been at the medical school for 25 years and said more
mothers graduated with the Class of 2004 than with any other class
in her memory ““ and probably in the history of the
school.
Reyes’ journey to becoming a doctor began more than a
decade ago. After college, she worked for about three years at a
high-tech firm in San Jose near her home, making some extra money
before going to medical school. It was there that she met Paul
Martorano, her future fiancee.
She applied and was accepted to the UCLA medical school and
moved down south with her daughter, Mercedes Navarro. Martorano
followed, but not until partway through Reyes’ four years at
Geffen.
Leaving home was one of the more difficult parts of medical
school, Reyes said. While her time as an undergraduate was full of
sacrifices too, one constant she could depend on in Northern
California was the presence of loved ones.
“(Undergraduate study) was difficult, but my daughter and
I lived with my family so I had a bigger support system there. My
mom and my sister were there,” she said.
The first two years at Geffen were packed with long days for
Reyes. She would drive Navarro from class to lessons and practices
““ after attending her own lectures at Geffen during the
day.
Navarro, now 14, played softball and took violin lessons, Reyes
said. The short commute made things easier ““ Reyes lives in
Westwood ““ but medical school coursework wasn’t usually
tackled until around 10 p.m., she said.
“Med school was all about whatever my daughter had going
on,” she said.
When finals approached, Reyes needed help juggling her
responsibilities, and her family was there for her. One parent
visited each of the first two years of medical school to help out
with cooking and driving Navarro to after-school activities.
The first year, it was her mom, and the second year, it was her
dad. Still, Reyes’ busy schedule had a definite impact on the
amount of time mother and daughter got to spend together.
“It was hard sometimes because she was studying a lot. She
needed to concentrate a lot,” Navarro said. “But (it)
was worth it because I knew she was going to be a doctor one
day.”
When her third year at Geffen began, Reyes’ days got even
longer. During the clinical period of medical school, students
rotate their days and nights learning to work different hospital
shifts.
“The harder times were during third year. It’s hard
because we have to be on the ward ““ we have to take calls and
be away for whole days at a time,” she said. “Child
care issues came up. That was difficult ““ having to figure
out what to do with her when I was gone 36 hours at a
time.”
Between school and family, Reyes said the chances to grab a few
seconds for herself were limited.
“There’s not a lot of time. I like to read when
possible ““ fiction, just something other than school. …
There’s not a whole lot of extra time after that,” she
said.
After all the sacrifices, Reyes said she has little to regret.
She’ll be starting an internal medicine residency soon at the
West Los Angeles Veterans Administration. Most importantly, she
said, she’s been a good role model to her daughter.
And Navarro said she learned a lot growing up in a household
where her mother was a student for so many years.
“She just never gave up ““ she knew what she wanted.
Even if people told her she couldn’t do it, (she) would still
keep going, even though it took a long time to get there,”
Navarro said.
As for other moments to look forward to, Reyes and Martorano are
planning for a wedding this November.
With her residency, Reyes plans on being at least as busy as
she’s been for the past 15 years. When fall rolls around,
Navarro will also be entering a new stage of life.
“She’s going to be starting high school, so
it’s going to be a rough time for her. … I expect I
won’t be seeing that much of her ““ or my
fiancee,” Reyes said. “It will be an intense
time.”
Another Class of 2004 Geffen graduate, Clare Keane, said being a
mother and a medical student meant recognizing she was in a
different situation than most of her peers.
She and husband Michael have two children ““Â a
5-year-old boy, Liam, and a 19-month-old girl, Anna. And they have
another one on the way, coming in six weeks.
“I never made myself the same as everyone else,”
Keane said of medical school. “I knew I was
different.”
Unlike classmates who sat in lectures throughout the day, Keane
spent her second year poring through notes at home so she could
spend more time with her children.
Other times, Keane would see Liam and Anna in the morning. The
children would be up as early as 6 a.m., and after breakfast, their
father would usually drop them off at the university’s day
care at around 7:30 a.m.
Keane was trained as a nurse in her native Ireland before she
and her husband moved to the United States in 1995. Michael, a
physician, had gotten a fellowship at the University of
Michigan.
Keane said that while going to medical school was
“something that had been in the back of (her) mind for years
and years,” seeing her husband’s enthusiasm at work was
a definite factor in her decision to apply.
The fact that she wasn’t a mother yet during the
application process made the choice of going to medical school
easier, Keane said.
“I had the ground work done for medical school before my
son came,” she said. “I think if I had had my kids
first, it would have been a harder commitment.”
Michael said he knew from experience that it would require a lot
of determination to balance raising a family with going to medical
school.
“I thought it was great, but realized it was a lot of
work,” he said. “But realizing that it was something
that she really wanted to do, I knew we’d figure it out
somehow.”
Keane started her medical studies in Michigan in 1999. But when
Michael found work at UCLA, the family moved again.
The UCLA medical school does not accept transfer applicants, so
Keane applied and got into Geffen, where she restarted her studies
in 2000.
Keane said she’ll remember her time at Geffen for the
diversity and openness of its students.
“The friendliness of everyone ““ their acceptance of
me as an older student with children,” she said. “It
really made no difference to them.”
After completing her four years of medical school without a
break, Keane will be starting an internal medicine residency at the
UCLA Medical Center.
Michael said he’s known for about 10 years that Keane
wanted to be a doctor. The time and energy the couple has spent
these past few years ““ and the sacrifices they will have to
make in the future ““ are well worth it, he said.
“She’s going to be even busier now than she was when
she was in medical school. I think it’s great … it’s
what she always wanted to do,” he said.