PBS Discussions

NOVA scienceNOW4 · Joined: 27 Dec 2006 Posts: 50 Location: Boston

Dr. Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa’s path to becoming a renowned brain surgeon was hardly traditional. At age 19, facing extreme poverty in his native Mexico, he illegally “jumped the fence” into southern California to become a migrant farmworker. After learning English at a community college, he was awarded a scholarship to the University of California at Berkeley, and then to Harvard Medical School, where he graduated with honors. He became a U.S. citizen shortly afterwards. Today, he performs more than 250 brain surgeries each year, runs a lab that does intensive research on brain cancer, and mentors scores of young medical students. Do you, or does someone you know, have a story as extraordinary as Dr. Q’s? If so, what obstacles did you have to overcome? And what lessons did you draw from your experience that you think might be valuable for others to hear about?