Christian Strong has no trouble living up to his callings
Future doctor doing fine at Harvard
When Christian Strong was 15, his mother posted a note on the refrigerator professing that he would be a lawyer, doctor or judge, and that he would go Harvard University.
The note proved prophetic. Christian, now 22, is a third-year student at Harvard Medical School, the second youngest medical student in his class.
What made his mother post such a note? Mrs. Bobbie Strong, an evangelist, tells anyone who asks that a Scripture in Habakkuk 2:2 admonishes followers to, “Write the vision and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.”
Christian Strong has been on the run academically most of his life. He started talking at 6 months old, has been reading since age 2 and attended Southwest College when he was 11, according to his mother.
When Christian was a student at Crenshaw High School in Los Angeles, he was allowed to skip the eleventh grade and go from the tenth to the twelfth. He graduated at 16 as the class valedictorian and entered Harvard at that same age.
“He always made good grades,” Mrs. Strong said. “He always wanted to be a doctor. He’s always been in the books.”
Christian has piled up the honors. On June 2, he was one of 14 second- and third-year medical students to receive a $5,000 Oliver Goldsmith Scholarship award from Kaiser Permanente. The award includes an opportunity to observe practicing physicians for four to six weeks at a Kaiser Permanente facility.
He has also received the 2011 Minority Scholar Award from the American Academy of Neurology, the 2011 Ghiso Fellowship from the Neil Ghiso Foundation for Compassionate Medical Care, the 2010 Tylenol Scholarship from the Tylenol Foundation, the 2010 Joseph Collins Scholarship from the Joseph Collins Foundation, the 2010 Alexandra J. Miliotis Fellowship in Pediatric Oncology from Harvard Medical School and the 2010 Dr. Stephen G. Jones and Wanda W. Jones Scholarship from Harvard University.
The aspiring neurosurgeon had a chance to meet with one of the doctors he most admires—noted neurosurgeon Ben Carson—before he made his decision to choose Harvard. Carson, who practices at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore, Md., made medical history in 1987 when he separated twins who were joined at the back of the head. Before Carson’s heroic 22-hour surgery, which took a team of 70 to complete, such operations had always ended in the death of one twin or the other. Christian and other minority students had brunch at Carson’s home.
Christian says he’s enjoying his training so far, although he hasn’t gotten into his specialty field yet.
“It’s nice to finally apply what you’ve learned. Right now I’m doing rotations in internal medicine. It’s [internal medicine] not what I imagined doing with my life, but it’s nice to have that foundation.”
After internal medicine, Christian will do rotations in surgery, pediatrics, obstetric and gynecology, neurology, radiology and psychiatry. Though he has assisted physicians performing surgeries, he has not been allowed to perform anything other than dermatologic procedures himself. But he will move into performing actual surgeries in about six weeks.
In the meantime, Christian’s other academic attributes keep him busy. During summers he teaches calculus and economics classes to Harvard undergraduates. And he’s a singer who loves both Gospel and R&B, and recently has developed an interest in Opera. As a kid he sang in the Mustard Seeds of Faith at Faithful Central Bible Church in Inglewood, where his family are members.
But Mrs. Strong believes Christian has one more calling.
“When I was carrying him as child I was told that he was anointed and that he would preach the word of God,” she says. “I believe he will eventually preach. He does it now in his own way. Several times when I hear him speak I hear the anointing.”
Then she said, “Say his name backward.”
Strong Christian.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Los Angeles County probation officers asked for help today in finding a parolee who threatened to kill school children.
Frank Edward Edmonds, 40, who authorities consider “extremely violent and an imminent public threat,” may be in Compton, South Los Angeles or Inglewood, his last known address.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors today reestablished a $10,000 reward for information leading to whoever fatally shot a 26-year-old Long Beach resident and left him lying in the street.
Supervisor Don Knabe, who recommended reinstating the reward, which had expired, called the shooting “heinous.”
Lashown Fils was killed on Jan. 11, 2012, at 3:55 a.m. in the 200 block of West 14th Street.
Daniel Lee Jones, a native of Dekalb, Texas, passed away on Thursday, May 2, in Inglewood. He was 71.
He was born to Leonard Clevland Jones and Ida Mae Bailey on Jan. 17, 1942, the third of seven children.
Jones attended Booker T. Washington elementary and high schools. He was active in the high school band and choir.
After graduation, Jones moved to Los Angeles and attended Los Angeles City College and UCLA.
California State University, San Bernardino, police on Saturday shot to death an unarmed Black graduate student who suffered from a bipolar disorder. The student was shot during a fight with police inside a campus building.
Elgin Olu Stafford, 23, who was last seen leaving his residence in the 20000 block of Campaign Drive in Carson at 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday, March 20, remains missing, according to authorities. Stafford has no known medical or psychiatric issues, but had recently been exhibiting erratic behavior. He is African American, 5 feet 10 inches tall and 145 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. He has a tattoo of a bonsai tree on his right shoulder, and a birthmark near his left thumb. He was wearing a dark jacket, multi-colored pants and a black shirt.
