Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine Students share their medical inspiration

Story and photos by BRANDY CRUZ

While they lived very different lives growing up, their mutual call to “make a difference,” led both Justin Gor and Jaqueline Stoutin to Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine in Temple to pursue a career in the medical field, becoming the best of friends along the way.

Gor, a native of Keller, became very familiar with hospitals at an early age, after his little brother was born with medical complications.

Watching his brother fight for his health motivated Gor to help others the same way doctors and specialists helped his brother. His view of medicine inspired him to enlist in the Navy, where he served for five years. He deployed twice with the Marine Corps before taking that next step toward becoming a doctor.

“I learned pretty early on how important it (medical care) was, or maybe my view of medicine was skewed by my own biases, because I grew up with a sick brother,” Gor said.

In 2019, Gor was selected among thousands of applicants as a Tillman Scholar, a program created by the Pat Tillman Foundation that empowers service members, veterans and military spouses as they seek ways to create solutions and positive impacts in their communities and the world. Inspired to serve his country following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Tillman, a former Arizona Cardinals safety, joined the Army in 2002. While deployed to Afghanistan, his unit was ambushed and he died in the ensuing battle.

“I definitely didn’t feel like I belonged,” Gor said about becoming a Tillman Scholar. “It was extremely humbling and a great honor.”

After his life experiences, Gor thought he wanted to be a surgeon, to help people the same way surgeons helped his little brother. He admitted that changed with his additional clinical experiences, when he kept feeling the call to help children and decided to specialize in pediatrics.

“Medical school has been fantastic, it’s been challenging, it’s definitely had its ups and downs, but it’s been a great experience,” Gor added.
“He’s one of the most welcoming and charismatic people I’ve ever met,” Stoutin said. “He’ll be an exceptional pediatrician because he just puts people at ease.”

Growing up in the south suburbs of Chicago, Stoutin graduated from the University of Chicago, got married and had her first child before deciding to heed her true calling. After working in marketing, Stoutin said she and her husband both wanted to make a career change — he into software engineering and she into medicine.

“There’s a story called ‘A Boy and the Starfish,’ where a boy is walking along the seashore picking up starfish and there are hundreds of starfish who have washed to shore. He’s picking them up and throwing them back. A man walks by and says, ‘What are you doing? There’s no way you can save all these starfish.’ The boy says, ‘But I made a difference to that one,’” Stoutin said. “I think that’s a really powerful explanation to what draws me to medicine. It’s a great way to make a difference to that person and to help that person.”

Working her way through medical school while also balancing life as a wife and mother has required intentional planning, but Stoutin said Texas A&M has been extremely helpful in this regard. “I came to medical school with one baby, and then had my daughter at the end of the first year,” she said.

She has found a balance that works for her family. It involves strict boundaries for herself between school and home, dedicating specific time for study and time with family.

“My kids like knowing that when I’m there, I’m 100% there. I don’t have my phone, I get to be their mom,” Stoutin said. “I love being a mom in medicine. There’s a lot thrown at you every day and you grow in a lot of ways. But it’s great to go home and have your 2-year-old hug you. She doesn’t care at all whether or not I got a question right on the test. It’s that unconditional love and support that helps a lot.”

She said that while medical school has been a long road, the key is to find the people who “lift you up and see your good qualities — not just in medicine, but in life.

“You want to surround yourself with people who are going to help you be the best version of yourself,” she said.

“She is supermom,” Gor said of Stoutin. “She and I started medical school together. She’s top of the class, an amazing person and super involved with the school.”

While balancing a busy workload in medical school with their own personal lives, Stoutin and Gor also became co-founders of A&M 77, the medical school’s very own cycling club, named in honor of the year the College of Medicine was chartered at Texas A&M University.

Always thinking about other people, though, Stoutin and Gor have used their hobby to help others. On Aug. 21, they partnered with the Texas Medical Association’s Hard Hats for Little Heads to provide free helmets to children in the local area.

“We’re educating them on helmet safety and injury prevention,” Gor said about the event.

Stoutin said she believes, not just doctors, but everyone should always try to look out for the well-being of others.

“I think it’s our role as people. We should be looking out for one another and when you see a need, you try to fill it,” she added.