Jake Reed never envisioned himself as a doctor. And then the United States invaded Iraq.
Reed, 27, didn't have the easiest childhood. After spending his early years in New York's Finger Lakes region, his family bought a mobile home when he was 7 years old and traveled from state to state, eventually landing in South Carolina. He wasn't one for academics, but was committed to doing some good in the world. The Iraq War broke out when he was in high school, and he knew just what to do: He enlisted in the U.S. Army and served two tours overseas, one in Iraq and the other in Afghanistan.
Now an M.D.-Ph.D. student in the Class of 2017 at Weill Cornell Medical College, Reed took an unconventional path to get to medical school, one inspired as much by his upbringing as his experiences in the theater of war.
"I went to Afghanistan, I went to Iraq and I saw these countries where my life was great compared to what most kids there go through," said Reed, who served in the U.S. Army third battalion 504th regiment and first battalion 508th regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division.
Witnessing the difference in lifestyle and the limitations of health care overseas, Reed decided that he had to reevaluate what he was doing with his life. Determined to pursue his passion to help people while applying what he learned overseas, Reed began mulling over other career options. But first he turned to his mother.
The youngest of three children, Reed watched his mother serve as his father's caregiver during his struggles with mental illness. A few years later, she cared for her own mother, who was diagnosed with colon cancer. Her personal commitment as a health care provider soon became her passion, inspiring her to become a licensed practical nurse.
It also inspired her son. After his service, Reed enrolled in Augusta State University in Georgia, initially following in his mother's footsteps as a nursing major. But just a few months later, the stock market crashed, precipitating a calamitous plunge for the U.S. economy. Augusta State officials, citing low enrollment, threatened to close the nursing program.
"By that time," Reed said, "I had already decided that I wanted to do something in the health care field and I didn't feel like I was going to be stopped. I was doing well in school and was interested in science, so I made a transition and said, 'I don't know if I'll be fully intellectually challenged as a nurse.' I decided I wanted to be a doctor and really started working to do that."
Reed landed an opportunity to shadow a doctor from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and while he enjoyed the clinical work, he became fascinated with research that has tangible medical applications.
During the summer of 2012, Reed earned a coveted research spot at the Rega Institute of Medical Research in Leuven, Belgium, where he tested compounds he synthesized at Augusta State that turned out to be Human Herpes Virus 6 potential antivirals.
"I made eight novel compounds and none of them were effective at all," he said, "but it was a very new experience working in a lab that was better funded, giving me a small exposure to big science."
After that, the leap to an M.D.-Ph.D. program was not a difficult one to make. There are myriad programs across the country, but at Reed's wife's behest he zeroed in on ones in New York City.
"This is the first one I thought of," he said of Weill Cornell. "I applied and heard back within a week that I was going to be interviewed. And I came here and was blown away, by Weill Cornell, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and The Rockefeller University. Just seeing the research facilities that are here ... I kind of fell in love with it."
Reed's now following his passion for medicine and science, but he'll never forget that it all began in Iraq. That, he said, is precisely the point.
"I felt like I would be helping more to alleviate the problems and conflicts that we have if I went over there as a doctor instead of with a gun," he said.
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