Commitment and service have been pillars in the life of Benjamin Burgess (BMD, 2016) from a young age.
Both of his grandfathers served in the Army, one in World War II and the other in the Korean War. He shared a close bond with them growing up and was heavily influenced by them.
Burgess enlisted with the Marine Corps out of high school, then went onto earning his Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Sciences at UAB. He then transitioned to the Navy through an officer program while working on two degrees, an MBA and his Doctor of Medicine from the UAB Heersink School of Medicine.
“I really wanted that experience and something different,” said Burgess. “It introduced me to military medicine which is what I’m pursuing now.”
Burgess is currently a Medical Corps Officer and emergency medicine resident at Naval Medical Center in San Diego. He is well-accomplished now with that list of accolades to his name, and he gives thanks to UAB for that.
“I think having that experience set me up for success in medical school,” remarks Burgess. “The various connections and research were pivotal.”
Sacrifices are made whenever one gives as much time as Burgess has to serving in our military, volunteering and pursuing his education, and his most challenging one will be coming up shortly.
Once he finishes his residency, he will first go to Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, Calif., where he will be a staff emergency medicine physician. Soon after that, he will deploy with a Marine expeditionary unit (MEU) to the Indo-Pacific Ocean area sometime around 2025, having to leave behind his wife and his young son – who is currently eight months old – for a year.
“I am keeping an open mind to it all,” says Burgess. “I have never been deployed in this type of setting before, so I will see how that goes and then evaluate family goals with my wife. Military life is hard and there is no way around that.”
The little time that Burgess has outside of his family, military and work life is utilized in another form of service. He volunteered with Equal Access Birmingham, a student-run organization working to provide underserved populations in the area with medical care.
Burgess adds that it helped to “open my eyes” to the needs of his others in his own backyard, something he sees even more so now being in California, a state which has eight cities among the top 18 in homeless individuals per capita.
Burgess also has spent time volunteering with Crisis Center Birmingham, Amedisys Hospice, Feeding America and Habitat for Humanity. He additionally commits to mentorship and assisting younger students when he can.
“I learned at UAB that it’s important to give back,” said Burgess. “I did not get to where I am today without a lot of help. Imagine what your life would be like if you did not have those people helping you out along the way. I believe it is important to pay that forward in whatever way you can.”
