In 2020, Dr. Cynthia Kudji Sylvester and Dr. Jasmine Kudji went viral after sharing they graduated from medical school together. But what made it more special and heartwarming was that the pair is actually mother and daughter. Dr. Kudji Sylvester got accepted into the pre-med program at Tulane University, however, she became pregnant with Jasmine her senior year in college.
Her pregnancy temporarily prevented her from pursuing her dream to become a doctor as she had a child to take care of, something she later said she doesn’t regret. While she didn’t become a doctor at first, she still decided to stay in the medical field. She became an RN and then a nurse practitioner. When her daughter went off to college, Dr. Kudji Sylvester decided it was her time to continue her education and finally become a doctor.
The mother-daughter duo shared their inspirational story on the Tamron Hall Show earlier this week. “I think a lot of times as women we tend to take on everything,” said Dr. Kudji Sylvester, who started medical school at the age of 43.
“When we do that, we put all of our hopes and we sacrifice everything for our kids and our family. And after a while, we just don’t pick that up again. And I think that [our story] related to a lot of women. We can do this regardless of what our age is and no matter what society tells us our limitations are, we have to believe that within ourselves and support each other to continue to live out our dreams.”
Dr. Kudji Sylvester received a lot of support from her daughter Dr. Kudji. After attending medical school together, they were also accepted into the same residency program and the duo said to this day they still rely heavily on each other.
“There were topics that 20-year-olds just knew off the top of their head and I was like, I haven’t heard these concepts for 30 years. So I relied very heavily on Jasmine. We would talk constantly about different topics,” Dr. Kudji Sylvester said as she reflected during their time in medical school together.
Her daughter, Dr. Kudji, shared similar sentiments. “We helped each other. To this day we still call each other in the hospital and we’re like, ‘hey I have a question about this can you help me out?’ We would Skype, we would call each other. All of the above.”
And this is just the beginning. Dr. Kudji revealed that their dream is to one day work together.
“I’m now in Pediatrics and my mom’s in Family Medicine so what that means for us is that we can take care of any and everyone. So the hope is that I take in all the babies and I’ll pass them along to her and they can just kind of continue with us throughout their lives.”
Check out the full interview below:
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