NOV-A-5
MY REFERENCE LETTER FOR AMY HAYES,
ONE OF MY MEDICAL
AND THE RESPONSE FROM APPLICATION PROGRAMS
Dr. G,
How are you? I interviewed with Fairfax FP yesterday.
The director said
your letter was quite possibly the most amazing letter of recommendation he's
ever read! So, thanks again! His brother also went to Ferrum years
ago...small world.
Best,
Amy
The letter you wrote is a big hit.
I'll forward an email I
recieved today so you can see your contribution first hand.
Best,
Amy
From: anhayes <anhayes@gwu.edu>
To: Glenn Geelhoed <msdgwg@gwumc.edu>
Date:
Subject: FWD: Invitation to Interview
>===== Original Message From mharris@valleyhealthlink.com =====
Dear Amy
Thank you for applying to the Shenandoah Valley Family Practice Residency
Program. To‑date, I have received through ERAS your common application form,
medical school transcripts, USMLE Step 1 score, one letter of recommendation
and your personal statement. Based on these, I am delighted to extend to you
an invitation to interview with the Shenandoah Valley Family Practice
Residency Program.
The many honors you received during medical school and your high USMLE Step 1
score are a testimony to your academic excellence. What is most impressive,
however, in reading through your letter of recommendation and personal
statement, is your commitment to putting your faith into practice and to
serving the underserved throughout the world. Your passion for medical
missions is noteworthy, and while I have met an occasional applicant who has
been on one or two medical mission trips, I have never met one who has been on
five. As the son of a missionary surgeon to the
brother
currently serving as a missionary surgeon in
rewarding but also how challenging medical missions can be. I was
particularly impressed in your personal statement with your comment that
"making a difference in someone's life doesn't depend on the resources at hand
but the resources of the heart."
I do sincerely hope you will accept our offer to interview and look forward to
your visit in the fall. If you wish to schedule an interview with us, please
call Mary Harris, the Program Coordinator, at (540) 636‑2028.
Sincerely,
Andrew A. White, M.D., M.A.
Residency Director
Dear Residency Program
Director:
Re: Amy Nicole Hayes
Dear Program Director:
I am writing this letter of
recommendation on behalf of and at the request of Amy Hayes. Although she has requested this letter, I
would be writing it without such a request, since it would be at my insistence
that I would wish to be listed as a reference for her and her future potential
in the practice of medicine.
Amy Hayes is a rare find, and
I take great pleasure in being part of that discovery process. I met Amy over five years ago, and it is a
story that illustrates her own character and ambitions as well as her
application to a dream of her life and its dedication.
Amy had been interested in
both medicine and teaching, and had applied to medical schools from
Unknown to me, but found by
her, there was a story in the publication about my medical missions to
She wrote a letter to me,
sight unseen and without any further introduction, telling me that she wanted
to become a medical missionary and the kind of work I was doing would be the
fulfillment of her dream. However, she
did not just refer to this as a “wishful thinking”, but enclosed pictures of
her work in the garbage dumps of
I have had numerous contacts
from “wannabes,” most of whom assume that they will some day do something good
after they get through a lot of the preliminary impediments to doing so for
which they need special credentialing.
Amy realized that she was going to be serving in whatever capacity she
was given opportunity from the early days of her life, whether it was tutoring,
coaching, mentoring, or her hope for medicine, and had already got started in
this process. I responded to her call to come to visit me during her spring
break, since she was driving to
We met and talked in my
office. We also talked on the run along the C & O Canal Towpath. I told her about the medical missions I lead
for the introduction of medical, and highly select pre-medical, students in the
developing world, one of the next screening clinics being the repeat trip to
Ladakh for Tibetan refugees I was leading again in the following July. This would be a dream come true for Amy, but
it is expensive. She,
characteristically, prayed about it, and said that if it was meant to be, she
would find a way.
She talked with her coach at Ferrum, and he
called me. Shortly I found myself
talking to a reporter for the Roanoke newspaper as a “Run for Tibet” was being
organized, and I bought the first entry, and got the tee-shirt (although I was
abroad when the big turnout for the race occurred when it was actually held.)
It raised enough money to completely pay for her expenses and support others as
well. People from Amy’s church heard
what she was trying to do, and without being asked, contributed money to help
her achieve her goal. I am sure one
would never go broke betting on the side of the grass roots support of the
good-hearted committed Americans from which stock Amy comes—and of the kind of
supporter she is and will continue to be to others with similar dreams.
So, we went to Ladakh. I had paired her with another of my protégés
with a very similar story of rejection on first applications to medical school,
although from a quite different background than Amy’s, especially coming from
On return to
She was sent a letter late in the summer,
which was opened as her family and supporters gathered around. It was a standard rejection letter. There were tears from many of her supporters,
but she got up cheerfully to set about the applications for the teaching jobs
she was going to use as her second choice for service, when the phone
rang. It was from the GWU admissions
committee, saying she must be disappointed, especially since she had received
the rejection notice without an interview, but new information had come up (she
recognized it later when she saw my letter and the pictures on the table at the
later interview) and the committee would like to see her.
She came to
Amy had not even carried a
toothbrush to
Of course, she flourished in
medical school, living out in reality what was her dedicated dream, and she has
not changed her goal to be a medical missionary. In fact, I had participated in a Ferrum
College TV film centered around “Living Out Your Full Potential” in dedication
to that dream, focused on Amy as the example, around interviews for print and
electronic media for which her photographer parents proudly served up the
pictorial portraits.
As you would know that she
would, Amy worked out her elective period to go with me on a medical mission to
She is a superb clinician not only from the
fund of knowledge she has diligently studied, but because of her primary
motivation: she has expressed a determination to be not just a “good doctor who
is a Christian,” but a “good Christian who is a doctor.” Again, she “lives this life” and does not just
“talk this talk.” She is an exemplary
medical student, and will be an exemplary resident, and a superb doctor because
she is an outstanding person. She will
be a credit to any program with which she affiliates and will excel in her
work, because her capabilities are unlimited based in the motivation she brings
to her life’s commitment.
I recommend her without
reservation, and with great interest in following her continuing career as a
colleague whom I admire.
Glenn W. Geelhoed MD