Raymond Castleberry

Student

“I didn’t have a good foundation in the sciences in high school, so it’s been hard. But with the guidance from other students and tutors at SMC, I’m getting better and better.”

The wailing klaxon of an ambulance means more to Raymond Castleberry than it does to most of us. To him, it means: Respond now! “I’ve worked in the emergency room at Kaiser Hospital for nine years, and I’ve gotten to know all types of doctors,” he says. “Plastic and orthopedic surgeons, ENT and trauma doctors; you name the field, and I’ve seen it done, close up. And that’s why I’m planning on being an emergency room doctor,” he says. “It’s a place where you can practice all kinds of medicine—treating trauma or heart attack victims, making fast diagnoses, or setting fractures. I’m attracted to the broad range of medicine I can do in an ER.”

Raymond says that spending four years studying at two-year SMC hasn’t bothered him at all. “I’m in pre-med, so I’m getting as much as I can out of SMC. The Science Department here is very challenging, and I feel that I’ve come a long way. I was raised in South Central LA, and you don’t find a lot of encouragement or role models there,” says Raymond. “Inner city schools are so lacking when it comes to science and math. And that’s why I’m enforcing with my nephews how important these areas of study are.”

Raymond reports that “coming from a two-parent household is something I’ve always had going for me. I’ve been lucky to have my family.” But he adds that he’s discovered another ‘family’ within SMC’s Chemistry Club. “We join together in going for the same goals. Most of us are future doctors, and when I need help with more advanced studies, I have friends that I go to, and there are no questions asked. They just help, and that makes science fun.”

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