Marcy Verduin didn\u2019t begin her career as a physician, or even a medical student. First, she was a high school science teacher and cheerleading coach. That foundation took her on a winding path that led her to become an internationally recognized professor of psychiatry and the Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ College of Medicine\u2019s associate dean of students.<\/p>\n
In her final year of college, Verduin was planning to be a chemist. But after working countless hours in labs, she realized she wanted to work with people as a physician. By the time she realized what she wanted to do, the deadline for medical school applications had passed. Looking to fill the next year before she could apply, she began her career as a teacher.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I wanted to go to medical school, but I also really enjoyed being a teacher\u2019s assistant and a peer tutor in college, so I looked for teaching jobs to fill my year\u201d she says. \u201cWhen I applied to be a teacher, they asked, \u2018How soon can you start?\u2019 and I said, \u2018As soon as you need me.\u2019 They walked me into the classroom to start teaching that same day.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a teacher, Verduin saw the way students\u2019 home lives and other life challenges affected them behaviorally and academically. One day, during one of Verduin\u2019s most challenging classes, she asked each student to write her a note about themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs I read these notes, I learned so much about these kids, things like, \u2018My dad\u2019s in jail,\u2019 or \u2018My mom has HIV\u2019 and they were so calm after they wrote it because they were able to share the things on their mind,\u201d she says. \u201cAt the time, I had no idea that I was going to become a psychiatrist, but when I look back at my life, the pieces were there.\u201d<\/p>\n
When a year had passed, she applied and was accepted to medical school at the University of Florida, planning to eventually work in private practice. During that training, she saw a close family member die from alcoholism and another attempt suicide. Those experiences caused her initially to rule out psychiatry as a specialty.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause of these things I had lived and witnessed, I thought I would never practice psychiatry because it was too close to home,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
But during her mandatory third-year psychiatry rotation in med school, she found that she loved coming home and reading about her patients and couldn\u2019t wait to come back to see how they had done in the hospital overnight.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat rotation is when it clicked to me that that was what I wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Verduin joined the Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ College of Medicine as an associate professor of psychiatry in 2007, before the new school welcomed its first class in 2009. She was named associate dean for students in 2010. She says the biggest lesson she has learned along her career journey is embracing what she called \u201cintentional serendipity.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t set out to be an associate dean for students, in fact, I didn\u2019t think I would do a lot of the things I did, but when the opportunity came up, I thought, \u2018I think I would love that,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s this role of serendipity in your path, and when you see it happening, you should embrace it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As we celebrate Women Physician’s Day, we recognize Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ College of Medicine\u2019s Associate Dean of Students Marcy Verduin\u2019s journey that led her to the university.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8692,"featured_media":145004,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[5,17],"tags":[979,2958],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-145003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colleges","category-medicine","tag-college-of-medicine","tag-marcy-verduin"],"yoast_head":"\n