Tag: biological sciences

When Derrill Schumpert, M.D. was in middle school, he briefly wanted to be in a rock band when he grew up. He did end up being a rock star, just in a different capacity.

A life-long Clemson fan, Dr Schumpert’s love for the university was sort of passed down – his grandfather, father and brother all graduating from Clemson before him. When he arrived as a freshman, Derrill majored in biochemistry and minored in biological sciences.

After his dream of playing in a rock band subsided in high school, he became interested in medicine, and his studies in college only solidified that interest.

“I’ve been interested in medicine since high school but discovered interest in family medicine throughout college and interest in student health through residency.”

When Dr. Schumpert was an undergraduate at Clemson he was involved in a number of extracurricular activities including researching at the Organic Farm, two distinct research farm locations in Clemson; participating in Clemson Alpha Epsilon Delta, the national health pre-professional honor society; volunteering at Clemson Free Clinic, which provides free medical care and pharmaceuticals for eligible residents of Clemson, Central, Six Mile and Pendleton; and enrolling in the Clinical Applications course where he was able to gain shadowing experience.

After graduating in 2017, Dr. Schumpert attended East Tennessee State University (ETSU) for medical school with an emphasis in rural primary care. The Rural Primary Care Track at ETSU is a specially designed experience embedded within the overall four-year curriculum for students interested in practicing primary care in rural or underserved areas. It provides opportunities with a small cohort of students to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to practice in communities with limited resources and increased healthcare disparities. After medical school. Dr. Schumpert went on to residency.

“This June I completed my residency in Family Medicine with Prisma Health (Oconee Memorial Hospital).”

Upon completing his residency, everything comes full circle as Dr. Schumpert begins to live out his dream of being a rock star, serving as a staff physician at Redfern Health Center at Clemson University. Redfern strives to be an innovative health care system providing integrated quality services that are responsive to the needs of the University community.

“I get to work with a team of other physicians, nurses and specialists to provide care to undergraduate and graduate students of the Clemson University community.”

Dr. Schumpert notes that his biochemistry major provided a great foundation for a career in medicine. He is enjoying being back in the Clemson area, having free time again after completing residency, going to all the home Clemson games, hiking, running and spending time with his wife – another biochemistry major – family and friends.

“I love living in Clemson and getting to work for my alma mater!”

Senior biochemistry student Ryan Mehlem was part of a group that won the Pay it Forward competition, sponsored by South Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives.

The Pay it Forward competition challenges students at Clemson University, South Carolina State University or the University of South Carolina to propose solutions to pressing social and economic problems in rural areas. Students work as teams to create a solution to a long-standing issue, presented as a research paper and video.

Other students in the winning group include Mercy Crapps and Natalia Nortz, both biological sciences majors. The group received $1,000 for their design for a mobile STEM academy toolkit that provides resources, volunteer support and community outreach to students in rural South Carolina schools. The STEM education toolkit helps teachers provide their students with an experiential learning approach that can complement textbook learning or computer simulations in the classroom.

“I remember from my middle school experience, I was able to do some molecular biology practices and techniques which was exciting and interesting,” said Mehlem. “And now I work with those in my own research, pretty much every day.”

When building their STEM education project proposal, the team’s research focused mostly on middle schools, talking to staff at several rural schools throughout the state before developing their initiative.

The trio plans to start with fewer than 10 schools before refining their toolkit and expanding to other locations.