Former Princeton High student begins journey as student doctor

Sep. 23—LEWISBURG — When Le Trae M. Wilborn was growing up, his mother would take him and his brothers to work when bad weather delayed school for a couple of hours. While he waited, he saw what doctors can do for people.

That journey he started years ago reached an important milestone Friday when he put on a white coat making him a student doctor.

Wilborn was among the medical students participating that day in a White Coat Ceremony at the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine in Lewisburg.

"It happened about an hour ago. I just got out of there. I think it's the official way of saying you are a student doctor," he said. "This is what you've chosen for your career."

Wilborn, who graduated from Princeton Senior High School in 2018, was that school's first student to receive a Marshall University Yeager Scholarship. He graduated magna cum laude in May of 2022 and started medical school in July this year.

Bad weather leading to school delays started Wilborn down the path to medical school. His mother, Natasha Wilborn, was working and she was a single parent, and this created challenges. Sometimes she had to take Wilborn and his brothers, Lester and Laylay, to work with her.

"Well, when I was growing up, my mother was a receptionist at a health clinic, primarily Green Valley Family Health," he recalled. "She couldn't afford to miss work very often. When there were two-hour delays due to inclement weather, she would take us to work until it was time to go to school. That's where I got to meet some really amazing doctors. Patients would go in like their world had ended and would come out feeling better about their outlook on their lives, particularly relating to their health."

Wilborn took a year off after graduating from Marshall University.

"I was pretty burned out from all those years at school," he said.

Then Wilborn switched from a year of not worrying about studying and examinations to being a student again.

"All of a sudden, it hits you all at once like a ton of bricks," he said.

Doctors of osteopathic medicine practice in all medical specialities, including primary care, pediatrics, OBGYN, emergency medicine, psychiatry and surgery, according to the American Osteopathic Association.

"We focus not only on the symptoms the patient may be having, but the mind, the body and the spirit as a whole," Wilborn said.

Wilborn plans to graduate from medical school in 2027. He said that he is just getting started, but he is thinking about staying in West Virginia.

"I'm heavily considering it," he said. "It would be nice to give back to the community that helped shape me."

— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com

Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com