As a young person growing up in Egypt during its revolution in the early 2010s, Daniel Boctor knew he wanted a career that would allow him to help others. By providing him a Medical Staff for Medical Students scholarship over the past two years, you helped him develop the skills and gain the experience he needed to discover his path.
Boctor, an M4 student, recently matched with the University of California, San Francisco, for a residency in internal medicine. He credits the attentive faculty at RUSH with preparing him for this next step.
During his time at RUSH, Boctor founded Rush Street Medicine, a program inspired by Doctors Without Walls at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he received his undergraduate education and volunteered. The Rush Street Medicine program is a collaboration of medical students, physicians and other health care providers that provides free urgent care and long-term health care resource referrals to people experiencing homelessness on Chicago’s West Side.
“Some of the patients didn’t tell stuff to their spouses that they came to tell physicians they never met in their lives,” Boctor said of Doctors Without Walls. “I wanted that kind of relationship with people. I started looking into medicine, and I think it’s the best decision I ever made.”
Boctor’s older sister attended RUSH, and he saw firsthand the positive effects a RUSH education had on her. He knew his idea of starting a street medicine program in Chicago would blend nicely with RUSH’s commitment to health equity. Now, Boctor looks to channel his passion for working with people experiencing homelessness, the underinsured and immigrants into a full-time career as a physician and an educator — an interest cultivated by his time at RUSH.
On the first day of his internal medicine clerkship in his M3 year, an attending physician asked Boctor for his opinion on a challenging patient case. He did not expect to be included in the discussion.
“It was such an inspiring moment,” he said. “I think the best teachers know how to engage people at their respective levels, and that’s something I would love to become.”
Reflecting on the generosity of the medical staff who funded his scholarship, Boctor said the financial burdens he experienced were very real. He grew up in Egypt, where it would require approximately 18 Egyptian pounds to equal one U.S. dollar.
“The cost of medical school can be a deterrent to many people who would make great physicians,” he said. “RUSH prides itself on diversity, on a sense of family, on a good culture, and this is all very sincere. I’ve lived through it. I’m very thankful to the medical staff who have given for this scholarship, and I think they have molded us into very, very strong physicians and people.”
The generosity of medical staff has empowered 12 students to pursue their dreams and receive world-class medical education through half-tuition support since 2016. We have set out to reward new students each year with half-tuition scholarships for their entire medical school experience through the Medical Staff for Medical Students program. We have raised $94,000 of our $125,000 goal. To make a meaningful, debt-reducing contribution to a student’s future, visit rush.edu/ms4ms.
Donors to this campaign will be recognized at a May 12 reception in Room 500 following the semi-annual medical staff meeting.
