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Cedric "Jamie" Franklin '09 Medicine Hometown: Sacramento, California |
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Everyday after school when he was growing up, Cedric "Jamie" Franklin would eat dinner and talk with his family about what he wanted to do with his life when he got older. He had watched his grandmother struggle with blindness caused by macular degeneration, and he knew that he wanted to help people like her. So when Jamie was in fifth grade and his teacher asked him to identify a long-term goal, he wrote that he wanted to go to medical school and become a physician. He slapped that piece of paper onto his grandparents' refrigerator so he would never lose sight of his aspirations. And years later, when he began medical school at the UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, that note to himself was still on that refrigerator. "My grandparents got to watch my dream, which started in their house, come true. I am extremely proud of that," says Jamie. He added that watching his mother put herself through law school as a single parent inspired him and taught him the diligence needed to succeed in medical school. Jamie chose Iowa because of the strength of the UI Carver College of Medicine program and the support -- financial, academic, and moral -- that he knew he would receive as a student. His professors have been open and helpful, and he has received crucial tuition assistance, including from the C. T. Brown Student Aid Fund, established by the estate of the late Carroll T. Brown of Eagle Grove, Iowa. He was impressed by the "home away from home" atmosphere that infuses the college, due to the world-class Medical Education and Research Facility -- built with the help of private gifts -- and by the Student Learning Communities, which offer academic and social support. "I thought, 'Wow! Most schools don't have anything like that.' Students and classes are usually spread out among multiple smaller buildings, and it's not as centralized," Jamie points out. "There was such a sense of community here. It's a unique environment for learning." Jamie knows that that sense of community extends beyond the UI campus to include alumni and friends who join together with their gifts to provide scholarships; sustain innovative programming like the Writing Program, the Performance-Based Assessment Program, and the Student Learning Communities; and propel the research that keeps the UI at the forefront of medical education and training. And he is grateful for the assistance and encouragement. "Everybody has a dream," Jamie says, "and most people need some help along the way to make their dreams come true."
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