He’s becoming a doctor and lawyer at the same time!
A North Carolina Ivy League phenom is now enrolled in both medical and law school, WBTV reports.
Victor Agbafe was thrust into the spotlight in 2015 when the straight A student and basketball player at Cape Fear Academy in Wilmington, North Carolina announced that he got accepted into all eight Ivy League schools. An accomplishment of immense proportion if there ever was one, Agbafe went on to pursue his undergraduate studies at Harvard University.
Now seven years later, he’s not only completed his undergraduate degree, but he’s also two years into medical school at the University of Michigan. If that wasn’t enough, Agbafe just announced that he is now also enrolled in law school at Yale University.
“What happens is it’s like a staggered structure for me. Last year during my M1 year in med school, I applied to law school. I was lucky to have some options and chose Yale and I decided to defer the beginning of it for two years. So, after my third year of med school, I’ll head over to New Haven — do those three years — and then I’ll come back for my last year of med school,” Agbafe explained.
The Wilmington native said it wasn’t difficult to find his passion in medical school, deciding very early on to become a surgeon, particularly interested in performing the more complicated surgeries, like those associated with colon or pancreatic cancer. While he enjoys that work, he feels like physicians and policy makers are often misaligned in terms of healthcare and felt like law school might be a good way for him to work on bridging the gap.
“There seems to be a gap between them (physicians) and sometimes I think people who create the policy, or you know who even run our hospital systems where it takes a lot more like a legal framework, right, when you’re thinking about how you’re going to pay or care. What does the pipeline process look like for developing a lot of the drugs that people have? So, my theory is if I can understand the language of medicine and how it works and I can understand the language of law, I hope that I can sort of work at that intersection,” said Agbafe.
Despite taking on such a ginormous dream, Agbafe wholeheartedly believes that time will fly by and before he knows it, he will have accomplished his goals of becoming both a doctor and a lawyer. In the meantime, he finds balance in the little things, setting aside time to spend with family and friends.
“Recently, it’s become a weekly habit where we’ll try a different ice cream place. So just little things like that will help keep you grounded. And as often as possible, I try to make it back home to Wilmington to spend time with my family because for me I think especially as I get older, I think it’s just really rejuvenating and refreshing to be with my siblings, mom and dad. That time you spend with them, I think it sort of reorients you to like what this journey is all about,” he said.
Congratulations, Victor! We’re looking forward to your very bright future!
Photo Courtesy of Victor Agbafe/Twitter