On October 16th, 2025 the “Healing Legacies: Stories of Determination in Medicine” event provided students with an opportunity to connect, so that they could better develop their support networks as well as potential mentors.
Medical and premedical students from Temple University and other Greater Philadelphia universities gathered with Lewis Katz School of Medicine (Katz) physicians and faculty on at the Medical Education and Research Building.
Amy Goldberg, MD, FACS, the Marjorie Joy Katz Dean, Lewis Katz School of Medicine, encouraged the students and physicians alike to imagine “a more just and compassionate future in medicine” and how they could contribute to that end.
“Together, as community of ‘Temple-made’ individuals, we have the power to reshape the healthcare narrative, build a system that truly serves all people, and ensure that our healthcare providers reflect the communities they care for,” said Goldberg,
The centerpiece was a panel discussion featuring Corey J. Wright, MD, FACS, Trauma Medical Director at Mary Washington Healthcare; Cameron B. Webb, MD, JD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Public Health Sciences, and Public Policy By Courtesy at the University of Viriginia; and Justice Owusu-Agyei, MD, a neurosurgeon at St. Luke’s University Health Network.
One by one, they described their fraught paths to medicine. Each entered college wanting to be a doctor, though none of them had any real idea how to prepare for medical school. Eventually, all three realized, as they floundered, that they were their own worst enemy.
“For most of us, we are our own obstacle,” Dr. Owusu-Agyei said. “And it’s good to know that because then you know you can bypass yourself, right?” He added: “You’re all here. You’re good enough. You’re great. We’re all smart enough.”
For Andrew K. Sanderson II, MD, MPH, FASGE, who co-hosted the event with Ikemefuna Akusoba, MD, FACS, FASMBS, these stories and this message, in particular, were the most important part.
“Learners from underrepresented groups are often the first in their family to go to college,” says Dr. Sanderson, who joined the Katz School faculty in April and is the Associate Dean for Health Equity. “And so, they usually don’t have a whole lot of people they can rely on to tell them they’re struggling simply because what they’re doing is difficult, not because they don’t belong here.”
Dr. Akusoba, who helped organize prior iterations of this event, echoed the sentiment.
“Distinguished as our panelists are now, they had challenges in the beginning,” he says. “Everyone, at some point, will need to persevere, will need to improvise, will need to adapt, will need to overcome. For some, this may be clear. But if you’re hearing it for the first time, it can be reassuring.”
The critical variable in the panelists’ ability to adapt and overcome was mentors who, in Dr. Webb’s case, wouldn’t allow him to fail.
“They pulled me along with them,” he said. Mentoring, he added, is vital for all medical students, but especially those who are underrepresented. “You have to lift as you climb”— a variation of a quote by Booker T. Washington, who said, “If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else”— “Because as you’re being mentored, you also are mentoring others. That’s going to strengthen the pipeline, strengthen our community, and also make you a better mentee.”
Following the panel discussion, a dinner was held in the Maurice J. Stone, MD, Commons, where Drs. Sanderson and Akusoba, along with other Katz faculty, mingled with the students, laying the foundation for potential mentor partnerships.
“We have to remember that even though we have demanding clinical schedules, there’s a next generation that needs our guidance,” says Dr. Sanderson, noting he was inspired by the “energy and enthusiasm” the students exuded in their interactions with him.
Lawrence Oresanya, MD, Associate Director of the General Surgery Residency Program at the Katz School, said, in accepting the Guiding Light Award for his contributions as a mentor, that he was inspired to remain kind and hopeful in the face of adversity.