A mother and her daughter who remarkably graduated from medical school in the same year have now begun their residencies together on the same date: July 1.
Dr. Cynthia Kudji Sylvester recalls a day 31 years ago, when she knew she was going to become a doctor. Per PEOPLE, she was visiting Ghana as a 19-year-old when a female stranger approached who needed help.
“She was talking about her daughter who was sick and had a fever,” Cynthia told PEOPLE in an interview. “She picked us just because we were American. There was such a drastic divide between us, and that really hit home. It was in that moment that I knew I wanted to be a physician.”
However, just one year later, Cynthia fell pregnant with her daughter, Jasmine, during her senior year at Tulane University. Her dreams of becoming a doctor were forced to be put on hold.
“Medical school at that time was out of the question,” she said.
Instead, she became a nursing assistant, working her way up over the following 10 years to become a nurse practitioner. And with help from her family, in 2013 Cynthia finally had enough money saved to go to medical school.
"Even though it was a long uphill journey, it shaped me. Every disappointment, every accomplishment made me want to push further and create a better life for my daughter.” She said.
Her daughter, Jasmine, who was a junior at Louisiana State University, had already decided that she wanted to follow in her mother's footsteps.
“My mom always inspired me to be everything that I wanted to be,” Jasmine told PEOPLE. “I watched her overcome things firsthand. We’ve come a long way.”
And now, Jasmine and her mother have started their medical residencies on the same date together - July 1 - through the LSU Health System.
“Jasmine has always been my rock,” Cynthia says. “We’re in this together.”
