When new physicians Cynthia Kudji and her daughter Jasmine Kudji checked their emails March 20, Match Day, they didn’t expect to set two records. That morning, the duo had both been placed at Louisiana State University Health to complete their residency training — one of the first times a mother and daughter matched with the same hospital after graduating from medical school at the same time.
“We were so excited,” Jasmine, 26, said. “Our life has never been planned, and you never know what’s going to happen. It was one of the best moments of my life.”
A native of Ghana, Cynthia immigrated to the United States with her family when she was two years old. It was during a family trip back to Ghana where Cynthia, 17 at the time, was inspired to become a doctor. There, she saw how egregious health conditions were when a woman she didn’t know asked her to treat her ill child.
“It jolted me because her only form of health care was a complete stranger,” said Cynthia, 49. “I thought, ‘You know what? What can I possibly do to change that, leave an impact, and make a difference?
’Her dreams were put on the backburner when she became pregnant with Jasmine as a senior at Tulane University, where she received a B.S. in biology as an undergraduate. Instead, Cynthia attended William Carey University for nursing school and completed her master’s of science in nursing at Loyola University in 2006. She worked as a nurse for nearly a decade before eventually deciding that she still wanted to become a physician
Witnessing Cynthia constantly putting herself before others led Jasmine to follow in her mother’s footsteps. “Growing up, I saw that being a physician was a position of service, and I really valued that,” Jasmine said. “I could see myself doing that from a young age.” In 2014, Jasmine graduated from Louisiana State University majoring in English while taking pre-med classes.
While Cynthia went to the University of Medicine and Health Sciences in the Caribbean island of St. Kitts, her daughter attended Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans.
Read more about this special mother/daughter journey here!
(Photo courtesy of Dr. Jasmine Kudji)
