In March, Dr. Cynthia Kudji Sylvester, and Dr. Jasmine Kudji made headlines for becoming “the first mother and daughter to attend medical school at the same time and match at the same institution,” according to Kudji Sylvester’s Medical School.
Kudji Sylvester is one of nine incoming family medicine residents at LSU Health Lafayette and Kudji joins 10 other general surgery residents at LSU Health New Orleans, both part of the National Resident Matching Program.
During a family trip back to the West African country, a young girl approached Kudji Sylvester and her mother, asking them to help her sick child, an indelible experience that affirmed her desire to help others.
She started medical school in 2015 two years after her mother, going immediately after her undergraduate studies to Louisiana State University in New Orleans.
Although it has been 156 years since Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler became the first African American woman to earn a medical degree and 121 years since Dr. Emma Wakefield-Paillet became the first Black woman to practice medicine in Louisiana, the number of Black females pursuing medicine hasn’t grown much since.
