{"id":77989,"date":"2013-05-10T11:05:38","date_gmt":"2013-05-10T15:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=77989"},"modified":"2013-05-17T09:33:16","modified_gmt":"2013-05-17T13:33:16","slug":"a-uconn-medical-student-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2013\/05\/a-uconn-medical-student-first\/","title":{"rendered":"A UConn Medical Student First"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Shawnet<\/a>
Shawnet Jones<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Commencement 2013 marks a milestone for UConn\u2019s John and Valerie Rowe Health Professions Scholars Program<\/a> for undergraduates.<\/p>\n

Monday, Shawnet Jones becomes the first Rowe scholar to graduate from the UConn School of Medicine.<\/p>\n

Jones was part of the first class of Rowe Scholars, which helped enable her to attend UConn\u2019s Combined Program in Medicine<\/a>, starting in 2005 as an undergraduate. She credits the Rowe scholarship and the UConn Health Center\u2019s Health Career Opportunity Programs<\/a> (HCOP) as being vital to her growth as a student-turned-physician.<\/p>\n

Jones, who says her desire to practice medicine goes \u201cpretty much as far back as I can remember,\u201d moved to the United States from Jamaica at age 3.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy first exposure I would say is through my grandmother in Texas, who\u2019s a registered nurse,\u201d Jones says. \u201cI remember going on the weekends with her to the hospital and seeing the doctors in their white coats with their stethoscopes. And I loved my pediatrician in Texas, and my one up here, and when I was there I would play with everything they had and always question them about what they were doing. That definitely piqued my interest, and it continued to grow throughout my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

By third grade her family had moved to Hartford, where six years later she would attend the private Watkinson School on a full scholarship. As a high school junior, she was interviewing for the Combined Program in Medicine at UConn and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

In the summer of 2006, following her freshman year at Storrs, Jones enrolled in the College Enrichment Program<\/a>, eight weeks of enhancing scientific and mathematics skills, shadowing physicians, and interacting with researchers. In doing so, she entered the pipeline of HCOP offerings for students from groups that are underrepresented in the health professions, made possible by support from the Aetna Foundation. The College Enrichment Program is part of the Aetna Health Professions Partnership Initiative.<\/p>\n

\"Shawnet<\/a>
Shawnet Jones (left) speaks with Tianna Edwards, a junior at Hartford\u2019s Watkinson School, after the High School Mini Medical\/Dental Program last month. Edwards says the program, one of the UConn Health Center\u2019s Health Career Opportunity Programs, inspired her to pursue a career in orthopaedic surgery. (Marlyn Davila\/UConn Health Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Following her sophomore year, Jones started the 10-week Summer Research Fellowship Program<\/a>, working with Hector Aguila<\/a>, associate professor of immunology.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in the lab, culturing cells, and it was good because at the end of that summer I did a presentation of the work that we did and that was actually my first research poster that I\u2019ve done,\u201d Jones says. \u201cThat was really my first lab experience, it was through HCOP. And I was then able to use that poster at the New England Scientific Symposium in spring of 2008 that\u2019s hosted by Harvard Medical School.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout their undergraduate years, Rowe scholars in the Combined Program in Medicine attend professional development programs and enrichment workshops, interacting with medical, dental, and graduate students and faculty. They also are eligible for research funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to acknowledge the wonderful vision of Jack and Valerie Rowe and the Aetna Foundation, whose support has been incalculable in our efforts to encourage urban youth to aspire to careers in the health professions,\u201d says Dr. Marja Hurley<\/a>, HCOP director.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s how Jones, right after her junior year at UConn, ended up on a service learning program in the Dominican Republic, working with Haitian immigrant workers on sugar cane plantations, known as bateys, in the town of La Romana.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe decided to develop health-related workshops,\u201d Jones says. \u201cWe had ones for nutrition, safe sex, and dental hygiene. And we got all the curriculum material together before we went down. We collected donations from churches and other community organizations that we were involved with to bring down clothes and food and money for the people that we\u2019d be working with. And through interpreters we presented these workshops to the families that were living on the bateys. We did that for three weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

She gave a presentation when she returned, and her experience shadowing a missionary in a private Dominican hospital inspired her to write her medical school essay about a patient she met there.<\/p>\n

\"Shawnet<\/a>
Match Day, March 15: Shawnet Jones (right) learns she\u2019s staying at the UConn Health Center for a family medicine residency. (Janine Gelineau\/UConn Health Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThat was a huge experience for me,\u201d Jones says. \u201cIf it hadn\u2019t been for the Rowe program I wouldn\u2019t have been able to go down there because I didn\u2019t have the funds \u2013 definitely one of the highlights of my undergrad program.\u201d<\/p>\n

That summer it was back to Aetna HPPI for Track 1 of the Medical\/Dental Preparatory Program<\/a>, a six-week program to prepare for the Medical College Admission Test.<\/p>\n

\u201cI took the MCAT that summer, and luckily I got a good enough score that I didn\u2019t have to take it again,\u201d Jones says. \u201cI\u2019m pretty sure that\u2019s because of the HCOP program.\u201d<\/p>\n

She returned for Track 2 the following year, 2009, at this point having graduated from UConn with a Bachelor of Science in physiology and neurobiology.<\/p>\n

\u201cEssentially for the six weeks we had what would have been the first six weeks of medical school courses and got exposure to the professors who were going to be teaching us in the fall,\u201d Jones says. \u201cIt was an abbreviated version of what was coming, but it was still very helpful. There was also shadowing incorporated with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the summer after her first year in medical school, Jones returned to the Medical\/Dental Preparatory Program, this time as an MCAT tutor, working with students who were where she was just two years earlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough each stage of the HCOP program I had the opportunity to be both a mentor and a mentee,\u201d Jones says. \u201cThe people ahead of me would give me advice about things to do, things to study, what to do with my summers when I was off. And as I went through the programs I was able to then pass that on to other students coming after me.\u201d<\/p>\n

As time permitted during her medical school years, Jones still involved herself in HCOP programs, sharing her experiences with others in the pipeline.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest thing that I like to share with others is what I would have liked people to tell me on my journey,\u201d Jones says. \u201cI was very na\u00efve going into my career in medicine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones isn\u2019t going far after commencement. She matched to the UConn Family Medicine Residency Program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the diversity of people I will interact with, and it\u2019s really about the relationships,\u201d Jones says. \u201cI want to know my patients as intimately as I know my family. I think that\u2019s the best way that I can provide the best care to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShawnet is an excellent role model, Rowe Scholar, and Aetna Health Professions Partnership Initiative participant, and I am delighted that she will remain at the UConn Health Center for her residency and her plan to serve her community,\u201d Hurley says.<\/p>\n

As for others who are considering paths similar to hers, she offers this advice:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are not enough minorities, especially minority women, in medicine and the other health fields. There\u2019s definitely a need, and there are programs that want to accept you. So in order to be eligible or look like a great applicant, you need to put in the hard work. You need to study. You need to do the community service. You need to shadow. Shadowing is imperative, because you need to have kind of an idea, a feel for what you\u2019ll be doing in the long run.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of the economic and social hardships you\u2019ve had to face in the past, don\u2019t let that limit you,” she adds. “I\u2019ve been told many times that you shouldn\u2019t let where you come from dictate where you\u2019re going. Take the past and the history that\u2019s been given to you to empower you and make you stronger. Be proud of where you come from but don\u2019t let it limit the opportunities that you seek for yourself. There are tons of scholarships out there. I didn\u2019t pay for undergrad, I didn\u2019t pay for high school, and I went to a great high school and a great undergrad program. So there are ways to get around those barriers. And when you do get to the programs or the schools that you want, don\u2019t forget about the support systems that have been with you throughout your life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Follow\u00a0the UConn Health Center<\/a> on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Twitter<\/a> and\u00a0YouTube<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meet Shawnet Jones, the first Rowe scholar to earn an MD from UConn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":77992,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[57,2010],"class_list":["post-77989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uconn-health","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-12 04:15:27","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77989"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78324,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77989\/revisions\/78324"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/77992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77989"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=77989"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=77989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}