An eye-opening visit to her parents’ home country gave Tashana Haye’s career a new focus

by Tyler Francischine

For some young people, finding a passion can be challenging. With every experience or discovery, indecision mounts.

Then there are students like Tashana Haye. Her life’s mission struck her like a bolt of lightning.

In 2016, the third-year UF College of Medicine student traveled to Jamaica, where her parents grew up, on a medical mission trip with American-Caribbean Experience. She visited an infirmary and saw the poor living conditions of those suffering from schizophrenia and other mental and physical disabilities.

“I cried after that visit,” she said. “These were my people, and I didn’t know they were living this way. That really opened my eyes. I decided then, I want to live life on a mission. I want to go back to Jamaica and help my home country. I can serve as a bridge between the two cultures.”

Haye is pursuing a career in emergency medicine, a field she hopes will allow her to travel to Jamaica a few times each year to work in a clinic while maintaining a practice in the United States.

“That will give me the time in my schedule and the primary care skills to serve the Jamaican community,” she said.

Haye’s dreams remain within her grasp in part due to the Willie J. Sanders Scholarship she received from the UF College of Medicine. The fund was established in 2012 in memory of Willie J. Sanders, the first black faculty member at the UF College of Medicine. Sanders began working at the UF Health Science Center in the 1950s as a lab technician. He worked his way up, serving as associate professor, director of the UF Health Science Center’s Office of Minority Affairs and the executive director of the Anatomical Board of the State of Florida before retiring in 1989. Sanders passed away in 2010.

Haye calls Sanders a source of inspiration for students of color.

“Back then, if you were a minority, you probably felt like you didn’t have a place to go. He created a place of solace for them,” she said. “Willie Sanders is an example of a minority overcoming roadblocks to achieve excellence. I wish he was still alive so I could meet him.”

Haye attributes her own commitment to excellence to an appreciation for education culled from her parents, who moved to the U.S. from Jamaica.

“My parents didn’t have the same opportunities I had. My dad would always say, ‘If only I had an education.’ So, I never took my education for granted,” she said. “That appreciation continues today. Even though I get stressed out and burdened by all the information I need to learn, I still feel lucky.”

Before Haye was a full-time student, she was a young Hollywood actress, a career twist she said informs her studies today. At age 12, she landed a role in the romantic comedy “License to Wed,” starring Robin Williams, John Krasinski and Mandy Moore. She also appeared on the family sitcom “Malcolm in the Middle” and lent her voice to commercials for the website Fandango.

“I learned to be calm and patient, something I can use in my clinical experiences,” she said. “No matter what your patient said, or how shocked you feel by what you see, you have to keep a cool, collected and reassuring presence.”

Haye’s journey serves as an example of the power of perseverance and of pursuing your passions.

“I would encourage everyone to have ‘big, hairy, audacious goals,’” she said. “They seem impossible, but step by step, by laying out a plan, you can achieve them.”

Story reprinted from Florida Physician magazine.
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