Determination,
'Dad' helped alumna succeed
When Lena Jefferson '90 was married last year, the person who
gave her away was not even related to her. But over a decade earlier,
during her undergraduate years at Notre Dame, he had told her
that when the time came he would be more than willing to fill
the place of the father she'd never known.
So on that day, Emil Hofman, Notre Dame's famously demanding
professor emeritus of chemistry and the man she had come to call
"Dad," walked Jefferson down the aisle. (Their picture is to the
left here) Their relationship, which began the summer before her
freshman year, helped her through difficult times, both academically
and personally. Without him, she says, she never would have graduated,
much less become a psychiatrist.
Jefferson, who arrived at Notre Dame in 1986, admitted not even
knowing where the place was when she applied. She says she was
looking for a place very different from her hometown of Detroit,
where she had attended Catholic schools. She also craved strong
spiritual relationships and a sense of community. After her father
disappeared she was raised by her mother alone until, when Lena
was 13, her mother was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a psychiatric
condition marked by alternating episodes of mania and depression.
Her grandmother stepped in and kept an eye on both Lena and her
mother until the young woman left for college.
The summer preceding her first year, she attended a program
designed to give minority students lacking strong academic backgrounds
a head start on the difficult curriculum in math and science that
all students on track for medical school must complete. For Lena
Jefferson these classes would prove to be her greatest obstacle.
After she completed the summer program, it was the opinion of
the directors, including Hofman, that she wouldn't make it through
her first year.
Fall semester, Jefferson recalls, was "a little rough." The
minority population at the University was even smaller than it
is today (now about 20 percent). This was a shock coming from
her background and after spending the summer studying with minority
students. And unlike most other African-American students, Jefferson
was Catholic. That meant she shared no common spiritual ground
with others of her race. Friendships developed instead out of
their shared cultural and economic backgrounds, she says.
To make matters worse, she was soon in danger of failing several
classes, including her introductory chemistry class with Hofman.
The countless review sessions and individual tutoring he provided
didn't seem to make a difference. "I made it practically impossible
for anyone to fail that class," says Hofman.
"I was in that man's office every week," she acknowledges. Nevertheless,
by the end of the semester she was in danger of being dismissed
from the University.
Hofman, who was then also the dean of First Year of Studies,
decided to give her another chance because of her work ethic and
dedication. Together they decided she would switch majors from
science pre-professional to psychology, keeping alive her goal
of eventually becoming a psychiatrist. She still struggled with
her courses but was able to remain in school.
Over time Jefferson became more comfortable as a student and
eventually made friends. "I figured out that I could do it and
what I needed to do to be successful," she says. She and Hofman
also became close, often meeting for "dates," as the professor
likes to call them.
"As long as he was there, I would go to see him. He truly became
more than my adviser," she says. Their conversations moved beyond
chemistry to her difficult family history: her parents' divorce
when she was 4, the father she never knew, the mother who was
missing from her life. During sophomore year, she started calling
him "Dad," a title he happily accepted.
In 1990 Jefferson received her bachelor's degree in psychology.
Psychologists treat people suffering from emotional or mental
problems through therapy and counseling. But Jefferson still wanted
to become a psychiatrist, a medical doctor who specializes in
the diagnosis and treatment of mental or emotional disorders.
So for the next four years she remained at Notre Dame, taking
the science classes she would need to score well on the Medical
College Admission Test (MCAT) and apply to medical school. During
this time she also served as an assistant rector in Breen-Phillips
Hall and worked for Campus Ministry, planning retreats and special
projects for minority and international students.
When Jefferson finally finished her science requirements and
took the MCATs, it was time to apply to medical school. Hofman
wrote what he called "the strongest letter I've ever written for
anyone wanting to go to med school." He wrote, "If you take Lena
you will be taking a chance, but she made it with us. If you treat
her as an individual, she will make it with you too."
Two medical schools, at the University of Cincinnati and Indiana
University, accepted her. Jefferson enrolled at Cincinnati in
1995. Once again, she struggled with classes.
She met a fellow med school student, Patrick Haggard '94. He,
like she, was looking for a faith community comparable to the
one they had experienced at Notre Dame. They attended Mass together,
she says, and he became like a brother to her.
Haggard witnessed the hard times Jefferson faced during medical
school. "Numerous times she failed and had to repeat courses,"
he says. "Every time she would pick herself up, reorganize and
try again. I have never known someone with such determination
and faith."
It was while in med school that Jefferson learned that at least
some of her academic difficulties were attributable to a medical
condition. She was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder.
With proper treatment and extra remedial classes, she finally
passed her board exams.
Jefferson had lost touch with Hofman while she was in med school.
Yet she did not forget what he had told her years before: The
most important decision she would ever make would not be her major
or her career but who she would marry. "At the time I was only
19 or 20," she recalls. "I didn't take him very seriously."
When she became engaged to nurse James Wilson in March 2002,
she says, she did not hesitate in asking Hofman to walk her down
the aisle. Knowing he had helped her through so much before, she
knew he would be there for her once more.
Now in her third year of psychiatric residency in Cincinnati,
Jefferson says she is doing exactly what she hoped and is able
to do so because of Hofman's belief that everyone who works hard
deserves another chance.
(January 2005)
