Young aspiring minds received a checkup from one of the nation’s top doctors.
Dr. David Satcher, the former U.S. Suregon General and director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, spoke to students at Inlet Grove Community High School on Saturday.
Satcher appeared as part of the Health and Science Career Symposium hosted by the T. Leroy Jefferson Medical Society.
Satcher rose from poverty to become the first black director of the CDC, and ultimately the U.S. Surgeon General.
He told students, “no excuses.”
“I think kids have to take seriously the opportunities they get, and they have to realize the opportunities don’t come wrapped in silver packages,” Satcher said. “Sometimes they come wrapped as the most difficult challenges, and it’s only through taking on these challenges you open the door to the opportunity.”
The medical society puts on events and serves as mentors to generate interest in the medical field.
“So important for the kids to see the role models, to be able to touch them, feel them, hear their voices about what they could accomplish for the future,” said Dr. Roger Duncan, of the T. Leroy Jefferson Medical Society.
The society is named after the so-called ‘Bicycle Doctor.” Jefferson rode a bicycle to care for his underserved patients in Palm Beach County 100 years ago.