Narrabri mentor inspires Griffith student to pursue career in medicine

Abbey Fedrigo was always a top student at Marian Catholic College, but never considered a career in medicine.

“I thought I’d be competing against really smart kids from Sydney private schools and wouldn’t have a chance,” she said.

“I was never encouraged to do medicine. It’s drilled into you that you need to be the top of the top to do it.”

That all changed when Narrabri medical student Georgia Goodhew, 22, gave a talk at her school.

“Georgia explained that there are different pathways to get into medicine,” Ms Fedrigo said. “You don’t just have to get perfect grades.”

Ms Goodhew has taken the 18-year-old Griffith student under her wing and mapped out her path to become a doctor.

“I’m at the University of Wollongong doing pre-medicine at the moment,” Ms Fedrigo said. “If I get a high grade point average, I can do the University Clinical Aptitude Test, which enables entry into medical schools.

“I want to do medicine at Charles Sturt University. I’d like to become a doctor and come back to Griffith and work. I may consider paediatrics; I’m a swim instructor and I’ve always gravitated towards kids.”

Ms Goodhew has made it her mission in life to get as many rural female students to do medicine as possible.

Last year, she and another medical student, Chloe Campbell, launched Boots to Scrubs, a grassroots scholarship program and campaign to turn young women from small country towns into doctors.

“It’s a not-for-profit organisation run by medical students for future medical students.

“We run free educational events where we talk about medicine, how to get in, how we can support you. We have done all the legwork for any student to consider studying medicine; we have collated all the information from every medical school across Australia and put it succinctly on our website. We also highlighted pathways for First Nations and other students.

“The other half of what we do is scholarships. We raise money from doctors and organisations and anyone who would like to sponsor us and give $7500 scholarships to first-year rural medical students.”

The Narrabri woman is now based in Griffith for a three-year clinical placement, working in the hospital and in community health.

While here, she’s been mentoring two Griffith women who graduated from Year 12 last year – Ms Fedrigo and Elizabeth Romeo.

She recalled having a similar experience as her proteges when growing up.

“For both Chloe and I there was nobody from our school above us who did medicine. Teachers would say it was hard and discourage us. There were no female doctors at all in Narrabri,” she said.

“Even doctors sometimes put you off; they ask women things like, ‘When are you going to have time for a family?’

“Society still views doctors as being white old men. I want to change that perception.”

More information on Boots to Scrubs can be found on its website.