CHARLOTTE — A Charlotte woman achieved something many thought she could not do and she shared her story with Channel 9 reporter DaShawn Brown.
“I’m really just overcome with emotion thinking about where I started from,” Dr. Kedeja Adams said.
Adams was near the bottom of her high school class but was determined to make an impact.
“My dad was diagnosed with heart failure during my freshman year in high school over at Myers Park, and at the time, he was no longer able to work, and I got a job,” Adams said.
She had to work a full-time job.
“So school took a back seat at the time,” Adams said.
She graduated from high school with a 1.4 GPA.
College was never a thought, and Adams never took the SAT or ACT placement exams.
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“After high school, I decided I wanted to do something to make an impact, and I enjoyed taking care of my dad throughout high school,” Adams said. “So I decided I was going to go to Central Piedmont (Community College) to become a medical assistant.”
Adams worked as a medical scribe while attending college and met her mentor and friend, Dr. Kellye Hall.
“I, basically, just asked, ‘What are you trying to do with your life?” Hall said. “And she said, ‘I’m thinking about going to PA school,’ and I said, ‘Well, why not consider going to medical school.’”
That boosted Adams forward faster.
“For a good part of my life, I felt that I wasn’t good enough and especially in high school, graduating pretty much at the bottom of my class and not having that support in high school to further my education,” Adams said.
Adams enrolled at North Carolina A&T after CPCC. She went on to medical school at UNC Chapel Hill.
She completed her journey on Friday and is now a doctor.
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“I tell her she is my proudest moment as a physician, and I have, literally, saved people’s lives in the emergency department on the brink of death,” Hall said. “And I brought them back, and nothing matches at this moment right here.”
“I did not always share my journey and share my story, but as I got to the end of this journey, I said, ‘There is someone out there who needs to hear it,’” Adams said.
She hopes her story influences people who may be in a difficult situation and give them the motivation to believe in themselves.
Adams begins her residency at Johns Hopkins in obstetrics and gynecology.
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