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1st appeared 2 October 1998 Honored Student Fulfilling Life-Long Dream Staring down the barrel of a gun wielded by a robber in the dark of the night is an experience one never forgets. "I was about five minutes from my house playing basketball with my friends when we were approached by a man with a gun," recalls Mark Ancheta, a second-year medical student. "We got down on our faces. It was the scariest thing. That was the first time I realized how dangerous Highland Park was and I remember thinking, all my hard work to get to college could not end here." Ancheta's life was not cut short on the cold concrete courtyard. In fact, despite being raised among gangs, violence, racism and drug abuse in his hometown just outside Los Angeles, Ancheta has excelled. Today, he's on his way to fulfilling his life-long dream of becoming a physician.
His anatomy instructor, Sexton Sutherland, describes Ancheta as a "bright, compassionate, personable and motivated individual." As Ancheta points out, he and Rodriguez have parallel life paths -- they both immigrated to the US as children, earned acceptance to the UCSF School of Medicine, taught elementary school students and volunteered in their communities. Ancheta came to the US at age nine from Manila, Philippines, with his four brothers and two sisters in 1983. Ancheta says the toughest part about the transition to America was coping with racial tension between Hispanics and Asians. "We had drive-bys and gang fights. I've seen it all." Guided by his family's influence and his own "strong will power," Ancheta focused on his education -- becoming student body president in junior high and class valedictorian in high school. He was awarded a scholarship to attend Occidental College, where he was a leader among his peers. He found time to tutor grade school children in a literacy program for which he was recognized with a "Volunteer of the Year Award." After graduating magna cum laude with a BA in biology with honors from Occidental, he began volunteering at a Los Angeles County medical center when he "observed the challenges and rewards of being a physician. "Specifically choosing a career in medicine was a fusion of my desire to help other people in need of health care and my love for the challenge of understanding complex scientific concepts," he says. Ancheta applied to UCSF because he wanted to go to a "top-notch medical school." Ancheta, one of two Filipinos in the Class of 2001, now sits on the School of Medicine admissions committee screening applications. "Due to the abolition of affirmative action, it makes it even harder for minority students to continue their education after high school," he says. "As a minority medical student, I feel that I not only represent the students from the middle-class community, but I also represent the minority students." "I'm really proud and happy that I went through all the difficulties and that I'm finally here." Today, Ancheta tutors first-year students in the Medical Scholars Program, serves as vice president for the student Asian Health Caucus and commutes to LA to see his girlfriend, on top of studying. "I don't think I'm naturally intelligent. I'm just a hard-working individual with a hard work ethic." By Lisa Cisneros
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DAYBREAK | ARCHIVES | CALENDAR | CAMPUS NOTES Copyright
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Last week, he celebrated his 24th birthday
and was honored as the recipient of the Dr. Edilberto
Antonio Rodriguez Award. Named after an exemplary
physician whose own life was abruptly terminated by
cancer, the award is presented annually to the medical
student who best exemplifies the will to overcome
adversity, the strength to provide compassionate care to
the needy and the moral and professional standards to
inspire others.