Author: Staff Writer | August 21, 2024 | 4 min read | Share
The Class of 2028 will officially enter the medical field at the John G. Clarkson White Coat Ceremony and Freshman Pinning Ceremony on August 23. Check back as we highlight members of the freshman class.
Becoming the first in her family to become a doctor is just one of the many firsts Mikayla Johnson is trying to achieve.
Johnson, who majored in biology and minored in Spanish at the University of Florida, was the first in her family to attend a four-year college and is now a first-generation medical student in the MD/MPH program at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
Originally from Tampa, Johnson is the youngest of five children. With an eight-year age gap between her and her youngest sibling, she felt the need to become more mature and responsible. This sense of adulthood led her to pay close attention to her family's health issues and sparked her interest in medicine.
“I grew up in an African-American household, so if you name the top 10 chronic diseases in the United States, someone in my family had one of them,” Johnson said. “Seeing my family members struggle with those diseases and the toll it took on them made me interested in medicine. It was the spark in me that made me want to make a difference.”
Improving the health of marginalized communities
Mikayla with her mother and father at the University of Florida graduation ceremony
Johnson attended the University of Florida, where she participated in extracurricular activities focused on eliminating health disparities and even volunteered as a community health worker, aiming to improve access to healthcare for underserved populations.
“This experience really gave me aspirations for what I want to do,” Johnson said, “and I realized I wanted to focus on this population and improve health care for people from all communities and backgrounds.”
Johnson knew his medical school needed to have a key component: a mission to serve the underserved and address health disparities, and the Miller School offers a number of programs toward this goal, from the annual Health Fair hosted by the Mitchell Wolfson Sr. Community Services Department to the Miami Street Medicine program, IDEA Exchange and more.
“This mission was clearly emphasized at Miami when I was doing my research and during my interviews,” Johnson said, “and it was important to me to have an MD/MPH program that focused on public health and allowed me to learn what there is to know about community health and how to improve health on a community scale. It was perfect for me.”
Looking to the future
With her MD and MD/MPH orientation complete, Johnson is getting to know her classmates and is enjoying getting to know her fellow Class of 2028 members.
As she heads into her first year, she envisions the kind of doctor she wants to be: blending medicine with public health and creating a free clinic that provides primary care to underserved communities.
“I'm so excited,” Johnson said. “I went from being a first-generation college student to now being a medical student, and I'm so grateful to have this opportunity to show my family, especially my nieces and nephews, that we can do it, and I get to set an example for them.”
Tags: John G. Clarkson White Coat Ceremony and Freshman Pinning Ceremony , MD/MPH Program , Medical Education , Medical Students
