Being older doesn't stop Gallop from becoming a doctor
Christina Gallop had graduated from college with a major in French and was working in public relations in Los Angeles during the HIV outbreak in the mid-1980s. She found the job to be boring and left it. After answering an ad in the newspaper, Gallop got a job doing street outreach for prostitutes and heroin addicts.
She has worked at the Fourth Street Clinic providing medical care for the homeless for about five years and is currently the medical director.
“I couldn’t work anywhere else,” says Gallop, MD. “It’s purely selfish.”
Inspired by a doctor that Gallop worked with when she was 27 years old, Gallup went to medical school despite the fact that she would be 40 years old when she finished. She was going to be 40 whether or not she became a doctor. Gallop did her residency at the Fourth Street Clinic where she has worked with a population that she says is interesting, appreciative, difficult and challenging.
“They’re a widely varied group of people,” says Gallop.
Her typical work day starts at 8:00 a.m. with triage of about 25 patients waiting when the doors open. Some have appointments, and some do not. Generally, she finishes work at 7:00 p.m. when the clinic closes.
“We are all one degree away from [becoming] these patients,” says Gallop. One of the hardest parts of her job is breaking through the stereotype of who homeless people are. About 45 percent of the people she sees are young women from “good” families.
Gallop serves on the board of the Guadalupe School in Salt Lake City and has helped with the Scholarship for Education and Economic Diversity of Salt Lake City at the McGillis School.
“Education is where the money is,” says Gallop.
Gallop has also worked in a hospital in West Kenya for a month and plans on going back in the summer of 2012.
This article originally appeared on examiner.com.
She has worked at the Fourth Street Clinic providing medical care for the homeless for about five years and is currently the medical director.
“I couldn’t work anywhere else,” says Gallop, MD. “It’s purely selfish.”
Inspired by a doctor that Gallop worked with when she was 27 years old, Gallup went to medical school despite the fact that she would be 40 years old when she finished. She was going to be 40 whether or not she became a doctor. Gallop did her residency at the Fourth Street Clinic where she has worked with a population that she says is interesting, appreciative, difficult and challenging.
“They’re a widely varied group of people,” says Gallop.
Her typical work day starts at 8:00 a.m. with triage of about 25 patients waiting when the doors open. Some have appointments, and some do not. Generally, she finishes work at 7:00 p.m. when the clinic closes.
“We are all one degree away from [becoming] these patients,” says Gallop. One of the hardest parts of her job is breaking through the stereotype of who homeless people are. About 45 percent of the people she sees are young women from “good” families.
Gallop serves on the board of the Guadalupe School in Salt Lake City and has helped with the Scholarship for Education and Economic Diversity of Salt Lake City at the McGillis School.
“Education is where the money is,” says Gallop.
Gallop has also worked in a hospital in West Kenya for a month and plans on going back in the summer of 2012.
This article originally appeared on examiner.com.