• Current Scholars
• Alumni
• Dream Big
• Scholar Travels
• Scholar Art & Music
• Scholar Stories
• The Scholar Experience

Rachel A. Lagos

Biography

Summary: Rachel Lagos, 33, a native of West Virginia, wants to become a primary-care physician and provide much-needed medical care in her hometown in the southern part of her state. She started on a pre-med course in 1989 at Harvard University but had to work such long hours to help pay her school bills that she could not fit in required laboratory classes. As a result, she turned her undergraduate studies to folklore and mythology. Ms. Lagos later studied at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom on a scholarship and attended London University and the University of Crete. She resumed pre-med studies at Mountain State University in 2003. She intends to enroll at the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine.

Biography: Rachel, leading her class at a West Virginia high school, was accepted at Harvard University and hoped to complete a pre-medical course. Her long hours of work to finance her education, however, conflicted with laboratory classes so she changed her major to folklore and mythology. She excelled, compiling a 3.7 GPA, and won a fellowship for a year's study at Cambridge University in England. Along the way, she spent her junior year abroad at the School of Scottish Studies at Edinburgh University.

At Cambridge, Rachel studied anthropology and economics and then received a diploma from London University after more economic work. She learned Greek and enrolled at the University of Crete, majoring in philosophy and social policy, while designing and selling jewelry and becoming a management consultant. She also raised two sons, and decided to return to West Virginia so they could grow up in a community "whose members respect and reward American patriotism, honesty and accountability."

Ms. Lagos also began preparing for medical school, going to Mountain State University to complete pre-med requirements in time to enter the 2004-05 class at West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine. She intends to practice as a primary care physician in the southern part of her state, an area designated by the US government as "medically underserved." Many people must drive more than 30 miles to see a doctor, she says, and many physicians are nearing retirement age. "There is a great responsibility associated with being a physician, especially in a rural setting where patients seek a specific doctor's care rather than general medical treatment," she writes. "I am willing to accept this responsibility."

Other Scholars Like Rachel