Belmont alumna Dr. Dora Geving is working on her residency at Harvard South Shore (HSS) and hoping to use her knowledge of medicine to change the world. Geving graduated from Belmont in 2016 with a B.S. in Biology and Honors and credits her Belmont experience with preparing her for the medical world.
“Things have fallen into place well for me,” said Geving. “I leaned on people at Belmont to get here. Dr. Nick Ragsdale helped me see the options available to me in the medical field. I want others to know not having family members in the medical field is not a barrier to entering that world yourself. You can come from all sorts of backgrounds to study medicine.”
Coming from a family of military service members, teachers and mathematicians, Geving is certainly the outlier as a physician, but she would not change her story for anything in the world.
At HSS, she is completing clinical rotations in everything related to psychiatry. As she possesses a natural intellectual curiosity, there is never a boring day for her. She appreciates patients welcoming her into their lives so she can help them receive the care they need to feel at their best.
Although Geving is only two months into her four-year residency, she is already planning for her future in medicine. She has considered a psychiatry fellowship. Additionally, she hopes to specialize in women’s reproductive health. Geving said having a passion for medicine has been a key to her success.
“If you are pursuing medicine for the money, it is not going to be worth it,” she explained. “The reward comes from seeing the face of a patient the next day after receiving the correct medication.”
Dr. Geving shared the following advice for Belmont students interested in pursuing medicine:
- Find something you love, something that brings a smile to your face, and pursue it as your passion.
- If you do not meet your goals, it is not the end of the world; recognize so many things can happen in life.
- Look at your educational experience as a character-building experience.
- Be willing to do what it takes to get to the finish line; do not give up.
In addition to her bachelor’s degree from Belmont, Dr. Geving holds a medical degree from The University of Tennessee Health Science Center.
