Courtney Gaddis, who starts today as a student at the University of Hawaii’s John A. Burns School of Medicine, is a born healer. But I also think of her as a killer — a slayer of stereotypes.
» Myth: College athletes are only enrolled in school to play sports.
» Reality: Gaddis was a three-time All-WAC scholar-athlete on the Rainbow Wahine basketball team while majoring in biology.
» Myth: Kids from public high schools in Hawaii can’t achieve anything.
» Reality: Gaddis graduated from Kalani High School (and her UH med school classmate, New Mexico State football player David Niumatalolo, is from Kahuku. They are among 21 of 68 members of the class of 2017 who went to Hawaii public schools).
» Myth: All pageant contestants are dumb as rocks.
» Reality: Gaddis won the Miss Ala Moana contest and is a two-time Miss Hawaii entrant. She also maintained a 3.75 grade-point average as a UH undergrad majoring in biology.
GADDIS HAS always had her priorities in order, even if it didn’t seem like it right away.
"When I was a little kid playing soccer, if someone got hurt I’d always run over to see what was wrong," said Gaddis, who has wanted to be a doctor since elementary school. "I’d want to help her, and I’d want to know, ‘What’s going on with that person?’ "
This caused a problem she can laugh about now. Gaddis was the goalkeeper, and her curiosity and empathy resulted in an open net, of which the other team took advantage.
There was another situation where helping someone took precedent over her game, and this time it was a stranger she aided.
Gaddis was preparing for her junior season in 2010 when she got a call from the Hawaii Bone Marrow Donor Registry. She was a genetic match for a 4-year-old boy with leukemia who needed her bone marrow.
Although the procedure to extract the marrow would set her back in her training for the upcoming season, she didn’t hesitate.
"It’s the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done," said Gaddis, who has received reports the boy is doing well. "I really want to meet him, but haven’t yet."
Gaddis remains active with the bone marrow registry (for information, go to marrow.org on the Internet).
"I still try to do what I can as an advocate, getting the word out (to register)," she said. "One of the reasons it’s really important for people in Hawaii to get registered is that it can be really hard for mixed-race people to find matches."
AFTER ATTAINING her undergraduate degree, Gaddis spent the past year in UH’s ‘Imi Ho’ola post-graduate program for aspiring medical students. The program serves students from disadvantaged or underserved backgrounds, and encourages them to consider working in areas that are short of doctors upon completing medical school.
"As part of the program, we went to Hilo and got a close look at how it is at a place where the ratio (of doctors) isn’t as good as it is in other places. It was eye-opening," said Gaddis, who aspires to become a pediatrician.
"I’ll go wherever I can help the most."
Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783 or on Twitter as @dave_reardon.
