Atlanta high schooler chosen to represent Georgia in honors program for future doctors – WSB-TV Channel 2

ATLANTA — According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), pregnant black women are far more likely to die in childbirth than any other race.

This statistic inspired a black teenager to become a doctor.

Her desire became even more intense when her own mother had complications giving birth to her baby sister.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Channel 2’s Tyisha Fernandes spoke exclusively with the future doctor after being chosen to represent Georgia in an honors program for future doctors.

Simone Corbin is a 15-year-old 10th grader at Kipp Collegiate Academy in northwest Atlanta.

She has attended Kipp Schools with most of her classmates since they were in kindergarten.

“We learned from a young age to praise each other, to be each other’s village and to support each other,” Corbin said.

When she was only 2 years old, Corbin’s mother went to the hospital to give birth to her little sister Shiloh.

His mother had a very difficult delivery.

Even at this young age, Corbin felt like his family situation showed him something about his future.

“She struggled a lot and I think a lot of that was because of the kind of doctors she had. And I feel like if she had more women like me who looked like me and knew what kind of experiences in the medical field, a lot of these issues would have been, you know, it wouldn’t even have been possible for these things to happen,” Corbin said.

TRENDING STORIES:

Seeing her father working in the medical field as a radiologist also inspired her.

This year, she received a letter saying she was selected as a delegate to the Congress of Future Physicians and will represent Georgia State in the summer honors program at the University of Massachusetts.

Her family, her Kipp family and her little sister are so proud of her.

“I think she appreciates that I care about our family and want to impact other families. I think a lot of times when it hits so close to home, we just want to change it for ourselves. But knowing that it affected more than my family is something we really love to talk about,” Corbin said.

Its director, Arthur Washington, thinks Corbin inspires so many other children and breaks glass ceilings.

“A lot of times when you think about the zip code, this community, society has put a cap on them, so Simone just proves the possible. The impossible is now possible thanks to scholars like Simone,” Washington said.

[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]

IN OTHER NEWS:

This browser does not support the video element.

Source