When Shay Taylor walked through the doors of Yale New Haven Hospital in Connecticut, she couldn’t help but get emotional about how far she’s come.
“It’s definitely chills that go through my body,” Taylor said, recalling the time she did an away rotation at the hospital.
Before the Howard University College of Medicine graduate began her journey toward becoming an anesthesiologist, she worked as a janitor at Yale New Haven Hospital – for 10 years.
“It felt surreal,” Taylor said. “I almost cried when I walked through those doors because I literally had a mop and bucket originally. Now I have a white coat.”
It’s a full-circle moment. Not only because she used to work there, but because she was born at the very same hospital.
A video she posted to social media showed the moment she read where she would go for her residency.
“I’m going to Yale!” she screamed as she jumped up and down.
After graduating from high school, Taylor began working at the hospital as a janitor. While going to college for her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, she continued to work there.
But then her mother got sick and “dealed with health care disparities.” Taylor reached out to the then-CEO of the hospital. She had been cleaning her office.
“I got the bright idea to email her, and she helped us,” she said. “And just seeing what my mom went through, and I got to see advocacy work firsthand with the CEO, I knew I wanted to do it as well.”
She decided to work to become an anesthesiologist and, with the help of her mentor, enrolled at Howard.
“I was just like, I definitely have to go to Howard. I have to be around people who look like me and who understand my journey,” she said.
Taylor will return to Yale New Haven Hospital this fall as an anesthesiology resident, moving closer toward her mission of helping patients and prospective medical students.
“So, that was my mission – to pay it back forward, and hopefully I can help somebody that is like my mom,” she said.
She told people to not be afraid of failure.
“Don’t be afraid to hear a ‘no,’ any closed doors,” she said.
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