SEMO GRADUATE MAKES HER MARK

Once she made up her mind to become a doctor, Verna Porter never gave up her pursuit of that goal.

Porter was honored Sunday at Southeast Missouri State University by the members of Sigma Gamma Rho sorority for becoming the first African-American woman to graduate from Southeast and go on to become a physician.

It took 13 years from the time she left Southeast to earn her degree in medicine from Southern Illinois University at Springfield.

"I found myself working, trying to pay off bills and trying to help my mother until I finally found a job in my field," Porter said. "Before that I did a little bit of everything. Finally getting a job as a sleep technician made me realize that I had not been working up to my full potential and I decided to go for broke and return to academics."

She graduated in May from SIU with her master's degree in medicine and has been doing her residency in Springfield since then. She plans to pursue a practice in obstetrics and gynecology in St. Louis.

"I feel like there was so much about the experiences that I had and the maturity level I had achieved while I was trying to get my degree that it ended up being a strength for me," Porter said.

Porter said she had to work through more than just the financial demands of medical school to get her degree.

"There were people that I met who didn't think I should be a physician, be it because of my race or my sex," she said. "I think that sometimes you encounter that resistance but it doesn't matter as long as you keep going and work hard."

Dr. John Hinni, dean of the School of University Studies at Southeast, was Porter's pre-medical adviser before she left Southeast for SIU.

"I don't think that African-American students at Southeast thought of themselves as physicians," Hinni said, explaining why he thinks it took 125 years for Southeast to produce an African-American woman doctor. "The same thing was true of women when I came here. When I found women who I thought were brilliant, just wonderful students, and I asked them about medicine, they never thought of themselves as physicians."

Hinni said he sees it as a changing attitude all over the country.

"We don't have the same biases anymore, either toward others or toward ourselves," he said. "I think it's wonderful to see. Equality is there, and we're not there yet, but equality is working."

Porter's family came from St. Louis for the event and was in the audience when she was presented with a plaque for her achievements. Her mother, Juanita Porter, and sister Rhonda Porter said they never had any doubt she would succeed.

"She had to do all the work and we just sat back and grinned," Rhonda Porter said.

Verna Porter said she was surprised when she found out she was being honored for her achievement.

"I'd like to think that I'm leading the way. I'd like to think that there are many more coming after me that would do far more than I've done," she said. "I think what I've done is special but I still feel like the same person I was 13 years ago."