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UNMC medical student LaKisha Williams looks up to her mother, Cassandra. |
On March 20, when UNMC medical student LaKisha Williams opened her envelope and announced she would to her medical residency in psychiatry at Louisiana State University, her mother, Cassandra Williams Smith, stood by her side. It was a sweet moment of victory that would not have been associated 26 years ago with a pregnant black teen-ager in rural Mississippi.
“I had always considered general pediatrics for my specialty, but changed my mind after doing a rotation in adolescent psychiatry at Richard Young clinic,” LaKisha said. “As I listened to a number of patients, over and over I found myself thinking, I have lived the life story of many of these kids.
“I began to ponder just what makes the difference in why similar life circumstances destroy some kids, while others overcome them and move on to mature, productive lives. I realized that what I really wanted to do in medicine is to help other young people find themselves and build more fulfilling lives.”
Teen embraced by family, church
Giving birth as a 15-year old year in Greenwood should have been a ticket to nowhere for Cassandra, but she was not the average teenage black pregnant kid. She was an honor student and activist in her church who was immediately surrounded by extended family and church members determined not to let early motherhood derail her life’s chances.
“In the black culture of Mississippi in the 1970s, the first thing parents gave their pregnant teenager was a serious whipping,” Cassandra said. “It was common for girls in my condition to be forced to renounce their ‘sin’ in front of their entire church and then be shunned afterward.
“But once my parents and church family got over the shock of my pregnancy just about everybody stood by me. I received wonderful mentors, one of whom — Vernita Woodfork — became LaKisha’s godmother. My parents and LaKisha’s paternal aunt helped me care for LaKisha, initially, then LaKisha and I moved in with my grandparents. My grandfather insisted I maintain my place on the honor roll at school and stayed up many nights with LaKisha, rocking her and feeding her while I studied or slept.”
Graduating with honors
Cassandra graduated high school with honors, but without the tasseled braids of Honor Society members draped from her gown. A ‘character clause’ in the Honor Society by-laws forbade teen mothers from membership. She had the humiliating experience of attending her high school’s second Honor Society induction assembly, only to watch others take the oath of induction. Nobody told her that she was disqualified for admission and wouldn’t be inducted.
“Until my senior year in 1979, the only activities the school allowed me was the marching band,” Cassandra said. “But we received a new principal in my last year who removed all the bans against me. I was homecoming queen, a member of the cheerleading squad and had a great senior year. But it still took years to get over not being inducted into the Honor Society.”
Cassandra went on the graduate from Mississippi Valley State University in 1984 with a bachelor’s of science degree in business administration. She stayed in Mississippi because the extended family support for LaKisha was so vibrant and her little girl was developing into a brilliant kid. Yet, teen motherhood continued to vex Cassandra for many years and, despite seeming success, she remained riddled with self-doubt and an inferiority complex that led her to put too much emphasis on what other people thought of her.
Opportunities abound
“I watched my mother struggle through a lot of tough years,” LaKisha said. “Yet, she was always so encouraging to me, uplifting me, and telling me that I could accomplish whatever I wanted in life. She kept providing opportunities for me, patiently looking for that special talent in me that would lead me to success. I started and stopped so many different activities, but she would just keep encouraging me and be there for me time after time.”
Choosing a health-related career
Then, in junior high school, LaKisha attended a health science awareness program for students. She listened to physicians discuss the many diseases that especially impacted black people – diabetes, hypertension, cancers and other disorders. She remembered picturing the different relatives that she knew had many of the ailments discussed.
The health professionals particularly talked about how hard it was to get black people to think pro-actively about their health, to get check ups and to trust the health system more. LaKisha felt that if she was a doctor her uncles and other family members might listen to her more and be more compliant with their health needs.
So LaKisha went home and told her mother that she wanted to be a doctor. From that point on, LaKisha, an only child, poured herself into her studies and became a math and science wizard. Eventually, her mom had to urge her to socialize more with other kids because all LaKisha loved to do was read and study.
Daughter flourishes
In the meantime, Cassandra met Esper Smith, a career member of the U.S. Air Force, at one of her college reunions. They married and she and LaKisha followed his duty assignments until he retired after 20 years while stationed at Offutt Air Base.
LaKisha graduated from LeFlore High School in Mobile, Ala., in 1994, and went to Xavier University, an historically black college in New Orleans, La. She graduated from Xavier in 1998 with a bachelor’s of science degree in biology and selected UNMC for medical school because of its reputation and the fact that she could rejoin her mother and stepfather.
“Xavier was an excellent training ground for UNMC,” LaKisha said. “Xavier has an outstanding rate of placing graduates into medical school. In my graduation class, 93 students went on to med school.”
Pursuing dreams
While Cassandra was a clearly defined mother authority for LaKisha, LaKisha’s maturity progressively inspired her mother to rekindle a long suppressed life goal. Cassandra knew in her heart that she had a lot of share with others about life and how to cope. She had always wanted to be a counselor and finally, at her daughter’s urgings, began to pursued her own dream. She attended Bellevue University and earned a bachelor’s of science degree in sociology and then a master’s degree in human services. Today Cassandra is a fully-licensed mental health care provider with a private Omaha-area agency.
Pursuing psychiatry
“The symmetry of my mother as a mental health therapist and my own future in psychiatry is not a coincidence,” LaKisha said. “We’ve been a team since I was born. As she has told me often in my life, we both had to grow up together. We continue to live through awkward social encounters with people who look at mom and then me and start mentally calculating just how old she must have been when I was born. A lot of those people still just flat out ask, ‘How old was your mother when you were born?’
Mother-daughter bond
“Our history became way more than just a mother-daughter bond. Our experiences together have become our source of knowledge and wisdom on how to understand humanity and relate to people, especially young people. And our mutual achievement in education and life is now our testimony to others that, instead of judging and rejecting, if people just try to love and support more, look what can happen.”
Resident matching program
A total of 118 senior medical students at UNMC received their residency assignments to 30 different states through the National Resident Matching Program. This program, a private, not-for-profit corporation, was established in 1952 to provide a uniform date of appointment to residency positions. Residencies last from three to five years and allow newly-graduated physicians to specialize in an area of medicine.