Neurosurgery resident is here to tell Black and brown youth that perseverance matters when it comes to chasing your dream
CHICAGO -- Reaching the end of a pandemic year with yet another new COVID-19 variant in the mix may have many sighing and shaking their heads out of frustration and exhaustion. But if the past two years have taught us anything, it’s perseverance.
Perseverance is something Northwestern University neurosurgery resident Dr. Aaron Palmer knows something about. His career in medicine exemplifies this quality. It was shadowing a Black surgeon in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, while he was an undergrad, that put Palmer on the path to medicine. That and his father’s illness: esophageal cancer.
“He actually had recurrent esophageal cancer. He was diagnosed before, when I was much, much younger. ... But my mom and dad would try to hide that from us. We didn’t have any resources,
