Specialist Byron Etta

Byron has known since high school that he wanted to be a doctor. So, why did he drop out of the pre-med program at the University of Chicago in his first year? Because he was looking for an experience to put some meaning and perspective to his ambition. He decided he would benefit more from the real-life experience of being an Army medic than he would going to school for eight years and gaining no first-hand experience.

So, Byron spent four years in the Army, including 26 months serving as a medic in Iraq. He says his military experiences have helped him find the educational motivation he was lacking and he plans to study medicine to become a trauma surgeon.

Byron now has a focused plan to achieve his career goals and he credits his field work as a medic for that. He has established a clear blueprint to becoming a surgeon and wants to eventually travel to South Africa with the IE3 Global Internships program to volunteer in underserved HIV clinics in Durban and Johannesburg. While he is in medical school and afterwards, Byron plans to volunteer with groups such as Doctors Without Borders.