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t h a i she w o u l d not be able to o b t a i n college
entrance credits f o r her work in the country
high school, she was sent f o r one year to
Simpson High School, a private institution in
Birmingham, and a preparatory school f o r
Birmingham-Southern College. T h i s high
school was chosen chiefly because her brother
was head o f the science department there.
Her credits were accepted f r o m the Calvert
H i g h School upon condition that she make
good grades. T h i s she undoubtedly d i d , as
she was valedictorian o f her class w h e n she
graduated i n June, 1925. She savs that i t
was in that year that she first d e f i n i t e l y be-
gan to prepare f o r the study of medicine, tak-
ing both biology and chemistry.
Virginia entered Birmingham-Southern in
the f a l l o f 1925, and was pledged A l p h a O m i -
cron Pi that same Sentember. She was ini-
tiated i n F e b r u a r y , 1926, just a f t e r m i d - t e r m o f m a k i n g a l i v i n g , i t is w h a t , as she believes,
examinations. Throughout her whole four
years at college she took all the science
courses she could and continued to prepare
for the study o f medicine. She was fortunate
enough to obtain a scholarship and during her
sophomore, junior, and senior years she was
assistant to the college physician. I n her
senior year, also, she was assistant i n the de-
partment of Chemistry. It was in her senior
year that she realized she could no longer
hope f o r financial aid f r o m her f a m i l y , so
she b o r r o w e d money f r o m the B i r m i n g h a m
branch of the American Association of U n i -
versity Women, and also f r o m the Margaret
Morrow Worker's Loan Fund, the latter being
a student aid f u n d at Birmingham-Southern.
At the end of her college course, graduating
in June, 1929, she saw no w a y to go on w i t h
her medical school work; but during the sum-
mer of that year the way opened up through
the influence o f Dean Graves of the University
of Alabama Medical School in Tuscaloosa, for
her to take her first year o f medicine. She
decided to take that year and hope f o r more
aid in the future. T h i s has been true o f every
year she has been in the medical school. A n y
one o f less courage and determination would
have given up, but Virginia lacks neither.
Friends, Alpha Omicron Pi, both the Tusca-
loosa and Birmingham branches of the Amer-
ican Association of University Women, the
Gorgas Loan Fund, of Alabama, and Men's
Bible Class of the Rayne Memorial Methodist
Church in New Orleans have loaned or given
her money f r o m year to year, thereby enabling
her to continue her studies.
I n her sophomore year at Alabama she was
awarded the Mobile County scholarship, which
helped her through that year. A s Alabama is
but a t w o year medical school, she decided to
come to the Louisiana State University Med-
ical Center f o r her last two years, chiefly be-
cause D r . Clyde Brooks, f o r m e r l y o f Alabama,
was coming there to teach in the department
of Physiology. H e offered Virginia an assis-
tantship in his department, which she held dur-
ing both her junior and senior years in the
medical school. During her senior year a
friend gave her a room and breakfast, which
cut down her living expenses f o r that year.
V i r g i n i a , i n spite o f the handicap o f finan-
To DRAGMA
cial worry, has maintained a high scholastic
standing, she graduated second i n her class,
and made the highest grade of any applicant
for the year on her Louisiana State Board
examination. She has the honor of being the
first w o m a n t o graduate f r o m o u r newest1
medical school, as well as o f being a member
o f its first g r a d u a t i n g class. She was one o f
two women to receive an interneship in Char-
ity Hospital, among seventy appointments.
Medical school w o r k is difficult enough
when all conditions are favorable, but when
one must work or borrow one's way through,
it is an added burden which very f e w are
w i l l i n g to carry. Y e t i n spite o f the load she
was carrying, she has been cheerful and unsel-
fish, always finding time to help others along.
Medicine, to Virginia, is not just a means
she was put i n the w o r l d to do. She feels
t o w a r d it as a man w o u l d feel about a call to
the ministry, or one would feel about a call
to the missionary field. H e r hope n o w is some
day to have sufficient means to be able to use
her medicine f o r charity w o r k and thus, as
she has so frequently said to me, make the
w o r l d a little better because she has lived i n it.
W h e t h e r she w i l l ever reach the point where
she does not have to earn money w i t h her
profession is not o f any consequence, because
the world will be better f o r her having lived
in it. T h i s she has already started to do, f o r '
in the first f e w months o f her internship she
has not only earned the reputation of being
the most conscientious and hardest working
interne Charity has ever had, but her patients
believe her to be the most kind. She gives
her time, energy and ability to all the u n f o r t u - ,
nates in her wards without ever complaining,
except to complain that she has not more time
to give. N o t h i n g is too much trouble and at
no hour o f the day or night does she mind
being called away f r o m either much needed j
sleep or pleasure to help some one who 9
suffering. Many of us in Alpha Omicron Pi
who take the teachings of our fraternity light-
l y can find i n s p i r a t i o n i n V i r g i n i a W e b b .
Alice Dyer (Gamma) is an
All-Maine woman after a
career including the treas-
urership of W. 5. G. C.,
"Campus" Board, presi-
dency of Sophomore Eagles,
secretaryship of W. S. G.
C, and Panhellenic
Council.