Gina Westhoff
When Gina Westhoff graduated from the University of Colorado with a degree in biochemistry, she knew she wasn’t quite ready to head off to medical school. But rather than embark on a soul-searching European vacation, she took a job teaching biology to seventh-graders in South Central Los Angeles. “It was an amazing and impressive experience,” Westhoff says of her work with Teach for America, a nonprofit organization that matches recent college graduates with inner-city schools. Westhoff herself had been encouraged to study science by her own seventh-grade biology teacher. And the combination of her proclivity for science and having a mother who was a school nurse propelled Westhoff to choose a career in medicine. Westhoff, 27, says the most challenging part of medical school is that when it comes to the needs of patients, her hands are often tied. “I want to be more involved, but sometimes you can’t. In terms of decision making, we are last on the totem poll,” she says. Westhoff, who plans to specialize in obstetrics and gynecology, has recently been working in the eating disorders unit, helping patients with weight gain and life stresses. “I know it sounds trite,” she says, “but I can’t think of anything better than to be going to work every day solely for the purpose of helping people have a healthy, happier life.”
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