Premedical Program
Elijah Johnson '00
Elijah Johnson came to Washington College with a dream and a plan that he had carried since he was a small boy. The dream: to become a physician like his father, a surgeon in Kenya and a missionary with the World Gospel Mission. The plan: stay focused on the dream, excel in school, and then put his finely honed medical skills to use somewhere in the expanses of the African continent, where they are so desperately needed. Near the end of his four years at Washington College, he papered his bedroom wall with seven acceptance letters, five of them bearing scholarship offers. He accepted George Washington University's full tuition scholarship.
"Elijah has the right temperament, the right personality for medicine," Verville says. "He was always so calm in the face of stressful situations-I suppose because of his background and the work he had already done with his father. Elijah always had high goals, and was quietly confident in his ability to achieve them."
It's no surprise to Verville, then, that Johnson is becoming a surgeon.
"I want to do surgery—it's more clear-cut than any other type of medicine," says Johnson. "And I definitely want to find my way back to Africa. What with the long hours and the paperwork and threat of malpractice suits, people in the United States don't go into medicine for the money anymore. It's really about helping people. I figure I might as well get down and dirty with it in Kenya or in other African countries, where medicine is all or nothing. They have a lot of infectious diseases, a lot of cancer in Africa. They have a lot of everything in Africa, except old people," he adds wryly.
Johnson visited his father last summer, completing his infectious disease rotation in Kenya. Instead of caring for patients at the hospital where Elijah's father works, they took their medical supplies out to the people in the rural communities. Together, the two treated 200 people in one weekend.
"The idea of having someone's life in my hands makes me feel good," Johnson says, "that's one reason I want to practice medicine. It's a good feeling knowing that you can make a life-altering decision to help somebody. At the end of the day, it comes down to you."
Johnson is grateful for the start he got at Washington College, and for the opportunities to get involved in activities he knew he wouldn't have time for in medical school. If he has one regret, he says, he wishes he had paid more attention in Professor George Shivers' Spanish class. Working in a medical trauma center in the nation's capital, Johnson has occasion to speak Spanish nearly every day. Beyond the close friends he made in school, he has fond memories of "Culture Night," an annual program that showcases the College's international community, and acting in a student play.
In his characteristically succinct manner, Johnson acknowledges: "That was cool."
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