Urgent final semester med school tuition needed

Shep Drayton is planning his final semester of medical school, doing hands on training at Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago. It has been a rough, complicated two years for Shep. Covid quarantine restrictions kept him from doing the necessary hospital externship for an entire year. Due to conditions of prior loans and minor scholarships, he was barred from taking any job that would pay him a salary. Not only was his scholastic and financial momentum interrupted during this time, the University Hospital in Augusta, Georgia where he started his studies, and planned to return, cut back their rotation program drastically. This has forced him to relocate in Chicago where he’s finding expenses and tuition are beyond his means.

Shep started college in 2010 with an interest in athletic training and exercise science. Over the course of his studies, along with a love and desire to help people, he decided to become a primary care physician.

Shep funded his entire first year of medical school out of pocket. His family has made financial concessions along the way, taking out loans and even selling the family a car.

He has maintained a GPA above the national average and it now stands at 3.2. He has passed all national boards and shelf exams to date and has completed rotations in pediatrics, internal medicine, psychiatry, family medicine, anesthesiology, OBGYN, and pathology.

With such a strong success rate and only 30 weeks of rotations remaining before completion, it would be a major defeat if he were unable to return to medical school in August due to lack of funds.

Minorities in the medical field have been largely underrepresented, the percentage of black doctors virtually unchanged since the 1930s. Shep is a great example of someone who can help to break that glass ceiling.

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