Med student job-shadowing Dr. Powell for four weeks

Shelley Leong, a Seattle native, will be job-shadowing Dr. Linda Powell at the clinic and hospital in Odessa until July 12. Leong is a second-year medical student at the University of Washington medical school in Seattle.

While pursuing her undergraduate degree in pre-med, Leong took advantage of opportunities for foreign travel programs to enhance medical training. On two separate occasions, she spent a week each time in Honduras and another week in Panama, where she found sanitation issues to be a pressing problem for the local population. Both countries struggle with finding sources of clean water and with inadequate or even non-existent sewer systems.

During the “gap year” between finishing her undergraduate studies and entering medical school, she spent time in Moses Lake and Walla Walla as an emergency-room scribe. She shadowed ER workers to gain a better grasp of patient charting. Most of her job-shadowing experience thus far has been in the area of primary care, and she is leaning toward specializing in family or internal medicine.

Leong is the first member of her family to enter the medical field. She has an older brother who is a chemical engineer working for Boeing. She is a graduate from Edmonds Woodway High School and an avid runner. She plans to run her first marathon in Seattle on December 1. She also enjoys arts and crafts and has knitted scarves for many family members and friends.

The Record spoke to Leong on her first day working alongside Dr. Powell, so she had not yet had much of an opportunity to experience the town itself. But she said she is looking forward to her time here and expects to learn a lot by shadowing Dr. Powell.