INSIDE DOUGLAS COLLEGE / SEPTEMBER 12, 1989

 

 

 

Pre-Med Student Wins
Governor-General’s Award

 

When Robert Taylor
dropped out of high school
half-way through Grade 10,
he probably never dreamed
that in a dozen years he’d
win one of Douglas
College’s highest academic
honours.

Taylor, 29, is the 1989
recipient of the College’s
Governor-General’s Award,
presented each year to the
graduating student with
the highest academic stand-
ing in a two-year program.

Taylor completed his
first two years of pre-medi-
cal studies this year at
Douglas College’s New
Westminster campus. Next
year, he intends to work on
the third year of his degree
in cell and developmental
biology at the University of
British Columbia. Further
down the road, of course, is
medical school, preferably

 

 

While he was at Douglas
College, he also volun-
teered with the New
Westminster Community
Crime Watch.

Taylor was born in
Fredericksburg, Virginia,
but he moved to Vancouver
as achild and isnowa
Canadian citizen. After
dropping out of high
school, he joined the army.
When his enlistment was
over, he drove trucks for
awhile.

Then, in 1985, he
decided to go back to
school, and enrolled at
Douglas College, the last
two years as a full-time stu-
dent.

“The hardest part was to
adjust to being a student,”
Taylor says. “My wife is
working to support me
while I’m in school, and it’s
a big adjustment because I

 

 

at U.B.C.

Taylor says his reasons
for choosing a future career
in medicine are compli-

Douglas College student Robert Taylor wins the 1989 Governor
General's Award for highest academic standing in a two-year
program at the College.

used to be the supporter.”

Taylor has been married
to his wife Marlaine for

 

cated and long. “It suits
me,” he summarizes. “It’s
something I really want to do.”

So far, he hasn’t decided what
kind of medicine he will go into. “I
just want to get my M.D. first.”

Taylor hopes that winning the
Governor-General’s Award will
help his chances of getting into
medical school. “Getting into medi-
cal school is pure competition,” he
says. “To me that’s what it is. It’s
just a finer edge really!" He had
hoped all along to win the medal

 

and says it was a fitting cap to his
time at the College.

By the time he actually received
the award, however, the excitement
had worn off. “I’d already been up
there a long time.”

Taylor is currently working at
the U.B.C. hospital, doing bio-medi-
cal research. Until recently, he also
worked as a volunteer in the
hospital’s emergency and long-
term care wards.

 

seven years and has two
step-children.

Although they now live
with his parents in North Van-
couver, Taylor hopes to get an
apartment on the UBC campus this
September.

Despite the adjustment in life-
style, though, Taylor is glad of the
time he spent at Douglas College.
He says he really enjoyed working
with all his professors and will
remember the time fondly.
“Douglas (College) was a good
time, really great.” MI