Rebecca Swift

Rebecca Swift

Heart scare helps North Augustan focus on career in medicine

  • Hometown: North Augusta, S.C.
  • High School: North Augusta High School
  • Major: Double major in pre-medicine and Spanish
  • Video (1:35)

Rebecca Swift learned while in college that not having a perfectly laid out plan for life is OK. Flexibility, she says, makes a student more open to the possibilities and opportunities available to them.

Swift, a student in South Carolina Honors College, is president of Carolina Service Council. She earned a Magellan Scholarship, an Honors College Research Fellowship and a Palmetto Fellowship.

She came to the university interested in medicine. She earned her certification as an EMT and served as a medical first responder on campus. During her sophomore year, she traveled with 100 students to Biloxi to do post-Katrina service work. She served as an EMT medic, which sealed her passion for medicine and ignited her interest in service work.

However, it was her own health crisis that gave her even greater focus, in her studies, her career path and her relationships.

In January 2007, Swift was on duty when she had a heart attack. After treatment and cardiac rehabilitation, Swift ran in the Columbia Heart and Sole 5K Run that spring.

“My heart attack shaped where I am and who I am as a person,” Swift said. “It forced me to step back and look at the big picture and realize that life is more about relationships than anything else. It strengthened my interest in cardiology and helped me understand the physical and emotional changes that result from a health experience.

“I've learned to trust others,” said Swift. “I want to help people, and I think I'm blessed to know that my talents and interests lie in medicine, where I can make a real difference.”

Swift has been accepted at the Medical University of South Carolina and will marry this June. She has deferred her enrollment at MUSC for one year while her husband, a Naval officer, completes a one-year assignment in Seattle. While in Seattle, Swift will work with Coaching Girls on the Run, a non-profit organization to help elementary school-age girls with improving self-image and training to run 5K races.

What would she tell students entering the university this fall?

“Get involved in a variety of activities your first year, and then focus on a few by holding offices,” said Swift. “Find balance in your studies and activities, and don't get overwhelmed or scared. Stretch yourself as a person, and remember that we are in this together.”

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