By Chayil Champion, contributing writer

One is a fictional superhero and the other was an equal-rights activist, but they both played an instrumental role in helping Ramadhan Ahmed prepare for his first year of medical school at Johns Hopkins University.

The 2023 Cal State Fullerton University graduate and biological science major didn’t hesitate to talk about how the web-slinging superhero loosely inspired him to choose his field of study.

“I was an undeclared major when I first got to campus. I remember looking for lunch on campus and stumbling into a cafeteria where they were giving a seminar showing how you can engineer any cell of the body to become any other part of another cell of the body,” Ahmed said. “I grew up reading comic books, so I was like ‘Oh, that’s exactly what they were talking about in Spider-Man.’ At that point, I knew that I liked science.”

Prior to declaring his major, Ahmed was having a hard time adjusting to college life. He was working multiple jobs, which subsequently impacted his grades.

Nonetheless, one book helped him prioritize his objectives and get him back on track.

“I read ‘The Autobiography of Malcom X’ during a time where I was really struggling with school and in life in general. Malcom really got me through that time and elevated my spiritual thought and self-value.”

Born in Wajir, Kenya, a desert village in East Africa with few resources and where using the bathroom meant “using a hole in the dirt,” Ahmed learned not to take life for granted. Coming from a place that births many refugees, Ahmed’s father migrated to the United States when Ahmed was 2 years old.

Ahmed’s father worked as a gas station clerk while trying to establish a suitable living environment before bringing his family to the U.S. He later sent for the rest of the family after Ahmed’s 5th birthday, including Ahmed’s siblings and mother.

It didn’t take Ahmed long to adjust to American life. After moving to the U.S., Ahmed became academically sound.

“In school, I was good at everything. It was hard for me to choose what I wanted to do,” Ahmed said. “I went into college as an undeclared major until I found my love for science.”

Ramadhan Ahmed was born in Wajir, Kenya, and plans to continue his medical education at Johns Hopkins University. (Courtesy of CSUF News Media Services)

While at CSUF, Ahmed devoted his time to many organizations including the Bridges to Stem Cell Research program and Project RAISE (Regional Alliance in STEM Education) where he mentored other college students. Ahmed did all this while working multiple jobs and volunteering for nonprofit services such as StandUP for Kids in Orange County.

Due to his academic success and community service efforts, Ahmed was awarded the Alumni Association’s Outstanding Senior, which came with a $1,000 award.

Ahmed finished his senior year at CSUF with a 3.91 GPA and graduated summa cum laude in May. After being accepted to 17 elite universities and receiving scholarship offers from several, Ahmed chose Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore because of the “sense of community” he felt when he visited the institution.

“The DMV has one of the largest East African populations in the country, and that was very big for me,” Ahmed said. “In addition, Johns Hopkins is a very prestigious university, and it’s where I feel I could become the best physician that I can be.”

Ahmed also detailed an encounter that sealed the deal during his visit.

“I was walking the hallways at Johns Hopkins Hospital with the tour group, and I am the only black person there,” Ahmed said. “All of a sudden, I see this kid in the hallway with his mom. He sees me and runs to me. He just wanted to talk to me. The tour group takes off and I’m left behind talking to this kid who looks like me, looks like my brothers and little cousins.”

Ahmed is not yet certain of which service line he’ll choose in medicine, but his heart for helping young boys and girls hints that he might be heading toward a career in pediatric medicine.

“Regardless of what specialty I choose, I’m going to do a fellowship in pediatrics, so it can be anywhere from pediatric emergency medicine or pediatric surgery,” Ahmed said.

“When you take care of a child, you don’t just have one patient. You have the entire family, including the parents, grandparents, the uncles and aunties. There are so many people looking for the child to get better,” he said.

Ahmed also has a desire to work with immigrant children whose families struggle to get proper health care. After watching his mother and father struggle for many years, Ahmed felt choosing a path in medicine is a perfect opportunity to give back to his culture and family.

“Where I come from, a lot of the infants are born severely underweight and many kids are malnourished,” Ahmed said. “Even for me, I was born 4 pounds, 4 ounces. I was a small baby. So, I definitely want to go back and do research on infant mortality and maternal health in East African populations.

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