Walters Aji Tebung
Class of 2024
I completed a B.Sc. in Biochemistry at the University of Yaoundé 1 in Cameroon, took time off teaching English in China and working at Sears Canada customer service, and then returned to school and earned a PhD in Biochemistry at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, during which I worked to identify drugs targets against the human opportunistic pathogen, Candida albicans. Following my PhD defence in July 2016, I pursued three postdocs, one at McGill University in Oncology, a second at Concordia University working on Candida albicans, and a third one at the University of Montreal Research Center on Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). I had built a strong interest in pursuing a medical career at an early age and therefore chose research projects that centered around identifying drug targets to help treat human diseases.
My experiences living in Africa, Asia and North America made me appreciate the importance of policy and culture in health care. GW SMHS is the perfect medical school for my training due to its inclusive nature and its commitment to train well rounded physicians that practice medicine while also influencing health policies for better health outcomes. My experience studying medicine here at GW has exceeded my expectation and has allowed me to learn so much both in the clinical aspects of medicine and health policy. As part of the Health Policy scholarly concentration, my research is focused on advocating for the DC government to fund financial incentives for asthma medication adherence among adolescents to improve asthma outcomes in this most affected age group. I am in my second term as Class President of the Class of 2024 and my experience working with the Deans has been very collaborative to improve student experience. What I have come to really appreciate about our Deans and faculty is their commitment to receive student feedback and take immediate actions to improve student experience and training. The diversity at GW is outstanding, the opportunities are many and students have the option to start interest groups that they would like to be a part of, if one does not already exist; Personally, I taught rap music before medical school and music has always been a big part of my life, so I started a GW medical school parody club this summer of 2021 and recorded our first med school parody with other classmates. I am confident that GW SMHS will mould me into the kind of well-rounded physician I have always wanted to be, and I look forward to contributing to my medical school and serving patients globally.