Louisiana man changes from hospital security guard to medical student

Image copyright
Photo submitted

A former security guard returned to the hospital where he worked, but this time as a medical student.

Eleven years ago, Russell Ledet, 34, was a security guard at Baton Rouge General Medical Center, studying chemistry on flashcards during his shift.

Now, the ex-Navy Intelligence Officer has a PhD and is working towards a MD / MBA at Tulane University in his home state of Louisiana.

“It’s a dream come true,” he told the BBC.

Its looping success story made headlines, about a year after it caught the nation’s attention for staging a photo of 15 black medical students outside the former slave quarters of Whitney Plantation, a museum in the slavery in Louisiana.

The photo went viral and since then he has co-founded a company called The 15 White Coats, whose mission is to raise funds for minority medical students. They also sent poster size prints of the photograph to schools across the United States to inspire the next generation of black doctors.

“When you go to ask a black child now what a doctor looks like, they are going to tell you a white man. To change that, they have to see pictures that correspond to reality,” Mr Ledet told the BBC. .

Image copyright
The 15 white coats

Growing up in Lake Charles, Louisiana, with a single mother, Ledet never thought he would go to college, let alone get a doctorate in molecular oncology or go to medical school.

As a child, he remembers going through the trash cans with his sister for dinner.

“I thought that growing up, only the rich went to college,” he says.

He enrolled in the Navy after high school because it was “an issue”.

It was in the military that he says he started meeting people who showed him success was possible – first in Washington, DC, then in Pensacola, Florida, where he studied to be a technician. military in cryptology.

“I started to realize that the world was more than where I came from,” he says.

In Pensacola he met his wife, who he said helped encourage him to study.

“My wife was like ‘you’re smart as hell, you don’t know that yet,’ he recalls.

After several tours abroad, he left the Navy so that he and his wife could settle down and start a family. They moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 2009, where he enrolled to study at Southern University and A&M College, a historically black college.

Although he had a full scholarship, he still had to work full time to make ends meet, so he started working as a security guard at the Baton Rouge General Medical Center. He attended classes during the day and worked from late afternoon until midnight, using any downtime to do his homework.

On Saturday after finishing his shift, he drove all night in Pensacola, where he was stationed as a reservist.

• The Tricky Slavery Questions Asked by Tourists in the Southern United States

In the midst of it all, his first daughter was born, which forced him to complete his education and get a better paying job.

He then obtained a doctorate from New York University in molecular oncology.

“I had accomplished all of this, and I said to myself: I can do anything. The world has become my oyster, ”he says.

His second daughter was born on February 20, 2018 – the same day he learned he had been accepted into Tulane University medical school on a full scholarship.

Media playback is not supported on your device

Since returning to Baton Rouge General Medical Center in July as a medical student, he has reconnected with his former boss, who Mr Ledet says helped him by not firing him when he was caught. studying organic chemistry on her shift.

Mr Ledet says that after his medical studies he wants to work in pediatrics and psychiatry, so that he can help improve access to mental health care in poor communities.

He hopes his success will inspire other young African Americans.

“Coming from where I’m from, nobody tells you that you can do things in the world, you can make an impact,” he says. “If nobody tells you, you don’t know. But now that I know I can tell the kids.”