Duke University | Baldwin Scholars Program
Meredith Metcalf
Being the daughter of a doctor and a nurse, I've always had aspirations of medical school somewhere in the back of my mind. Now, four years of Duke and one Economics major later, I'm finally following that dream. Mostly. I'll be spending my "gap year" before medical school doing research in the Anesthesiology Department at Duke, in the same lab where I did an independent study in my senior year.
On the last day of my elementary school career, my teacher pulled me aside at the end of the day. She told me I was special and had the power to change the world; she told me that I could be anything I wanted to be; she told me I was a girl. She said that I was going to show the boys in this world just how influential a woman can be. I had completely forgotten that encounter until I had been accepted into the program my freshman year. Sitting in our seminar class during spring semester, I realized I was in the company of 17 other influential women who were bound to change the world.
The women I have met through Baldwin Scholars are utterly phenomenal. They have inspired me, challenged me, and supported me. Whatever career I end up in, I'm hoping it will be a great continuation of the very non-standard path I started meandering down years ago. In the meantime, I'm enjoying every moment I have before I grow up.