By: Dr. Andrew Yox, Honors Director
Brenda Godoy, a Presidential Scholar at NTCC from 2016 to 2018, has just won her second $150,000 Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship, this one for graduate school. The former Titus County Community Health Worker (CHW), and Mount Pleasant High School salutatorian will attend Medical School, in Fort Worth this fall.
She will study at the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine. She was first introduced to this field, when shadowing, Dr. Eric Reed, DO, an otolaryngologist, in Mount Pleasant, while attending college. In response to the question on why she wanted to attend Medical School, Godoy wrote that her interest was rooted in the need to promote “healthcare access.” While living in Mount Pleasant, attending NTCC, and working any one of three jobs, Godoy frequently had to mediate medical care for family members, translating from English to Spanish. She also attained a perspective on the larger community’s relation to the health care system, and the difficulties of many in acquiring medical care as the Titus County Health Worker during the COVID epidemic.
“I am so pleased and thankful that Godoy has made medical school” noted NTCC Honors Director, Dr. Andrew Yox. “She has been a wonderful alumna for us, judging two honors poster contests, attending our poetry reading, and other honors functions. Of course, Godoy’s work as an honors student while at NTCC was spectacular and unprecedented. After Dr. Mary Hearron helped to coax Godoy to enter Honors Northeast, Godoy went on to publish an acclaimed essay on the Texas Revolution, win Eckman awards, and a Boe Award of the Great Plains Honors Council. And then there was her sophomore year! An educator would be hard pressed to prove that she was not the top graduate of American community colleges in 2018! In addition to winning her first Jack Kent Cooke in in the spring, Godoy was a member of the all-USA team, a most elite-echelon group of twenty, nation-wide in Phi Theta Kappa, a Hites Scholar (a top nationally-ranked group of ten), and a winner of a New Century Award, as the student from the state of Texas with the highest national ranking. No other student in the nation won all four of these bellwether awards in 2018.”
After transferring to Texas A&M, College Station, with her JKC full ride, Godoy achieved a near-perfect GPA, while widening her sensitivity to health issues both internationally and at home. During this period she embarked on two medical goodwill trips, to Guatemala and Thailand.
Godoy is a Vice Regent of the Catholic Daughters of America, and a member of St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church in Mount Pleasant. While at NTCC, Godoy directed NTCC’s Webb-Award winning film on Mary Kay. While at A&M she was a member of several organizations, including ACHIEVEMates, a first-of-a-kind organization in Texas to help students with disabilities realize their learning potential, and also Deaf Aggies where she furthered her proficiency with sign language.
As Godoy makes plans to move to Fort Worth, she notes “I look forward to the day I can do more to serve and advocate for my community, and underserved communities across the world, as a physician.”
