After his sophomore year at Georgia State, Seth Kwarteng (B.S. ’21) returned to his native Ghana and spent part of the summer shadowing doctors as they made their rounds around a hospital.
For the first six months of this year, Kwarteng spent 10 hours per week volunteering at a COVID-19 vaccine site in Lawrenceville, Ga. Through the Georgia Medical Reserve Corps, he helped check area residents into the clinic and monitor them for allergic reactions.
The experiences confirmed for Kwarteng his decision to pursue a career as both a physician and a researcher.
A student in the Georgia State University Honors College, Kwarteng will receive a Bachelor of Science in biology during commencement exercises this month, then begin studying for the Medical College Admission Test, which he plans to take next spring.
At Georgia State, he connected not only with a network of fellow students who intend to pursue medicine, but with professors who’ve helped sharpen his focus and cultivate his passion for research.
This semester, Kwarteng has been working in the molecular parasitology lab of senior lecturer Paul Ulrich, director of the Program for Undergraduate Research in the Life Sciences at Georgia State. The work has fueled Kwarteng’s desire to both heal the sick and better understand the diseases that afflict them.
“I’ve met professors who are genuinely interested in my growth,” Kwarteng said. “They’ve encouraged me to come talk to them. I was able to get ideas from them outside of the classroom.”
Kwarteng also took advantage of the diverse student life on the Atlanta Campus, joining the Georgia State chapter of the American Medical Student Association and the Honors Student Organization, where he served as treasurer.
“I’ve met so many people — people from different countries and different cultures,” Kwarteng said. “It’s a big community of people with different experiences, and it’s exposed me to different ways of life.”
— Story by Michael Davis (B.A. '03), photo by Meg Buscema