Track & Field 5/15/2020 11:00:00 AM

Alumni in Action: A Conversation with Nate Ford '15

LA JOLLA, Calif. – UC San Diego Athletics is sharing the perspectives of alumni scholar-athletes whose work in healthcare has been impacted by COVID-19. Today’s featured alumnus is Nate Ford '15, a sprinter on the track and field team. Ford's main events included the 200, 400 and 4x400 relay.

A native of Fresno, Calif., Ford was a three-time California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) All-Academic selection, a National Student-Athlete Day honoree, as well as a Triton Athletes' Council team representative. He graduated with a major in human biology from Revelle College.

Q: What is your job and where are you currently working?
Ford: I’m a newly graduated United States Air Force physician; I attended the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU), which includes the military’s medical school. Our graduation date was moved up by a month and a half due to the pandemic. Our university’s leadership recognized the need to expand the workforce of the military health care system in order to respond to the current crisis, which led to the decision to confer our degrees early. My classmates and I have been tasked to work at hospitals throughout the National Capital Region while continuing to complete distance learning courses.

However, our primary job is to continue to prepare for the start of our residency training programs. I’ll be starting a residency program in Internal Medicine at an Air Force base in Ohio and will be moving there soon. Like many graduating students across the country, I’m humbled to be joining the medical profession at such a tumultuous time but I’m thankful that I’ll be able to help contribute to the national effort against COVID-19.

Q: How is COVID-19 impacting the work that you do and your life outside of work?
Ford: The pandemic has disrupted medical education at many different levels: nearly all medical student rotations have been canceled, first and second-year students are in 100% distance learning courses, many fourth-years have been graduated early, and I’ve read about residents undergoing dramatic schedule changes to meet the needs of their hospitals. Many of these changes have impacted me personally. I had been scheduled for a medical research rotation at NASA this spring that was canceled and replaced with a distance learning course, my graduation was held a month and a half early via a virtual ceremony, and I’m far from certain what my first few months of residency training will look like at this point.

Thankfully, in the meantime, I can still stay academically focused, cook meals with my roommates, head to the local high school tracks for intervals, and get in a few reps on the shovel that we’ve turned into a pull-up bar. Of course, I also miss spending time with friends and loved ones as so many around the world are experiencing right now.

Q: What did you learn from being a scholar-athlete that you've been able to apply to your profession?
Ford: Learning medicine at USU is a unique experience for many reasons. Our studies included military medical field exercises, operational experiences, a complete military emergency medicine curriculum, and near-continuous travel around the country and world for clinical rotations—all in addition to the standard challenges of medical education.

Teamwork is critical both in the military and in medicine; teams are assembled and disassembled incredibly rapidly in both fields and you simply must be comfortable integrating into them quickly to be effective. Another skill that I believe athletics helps to develop is perseverance, or grit. In both collegiate sports and challenging career fields, it’s imperative to have the drive to put in the work and hours necessary to get the job done. Lastly, I believe that being an athlete provides an amazing way to maintain mental and physical health that can be helpful every day and during difficult times.

Q: What suggestions, advice, or words of encouragement do you have for our current scholar-athletes during these trying times?
Ford: My heart breaks for the Tritons who have lost their seasons, especially those who may have been in their final year. Unfortunately, nothing can truly replace that loss. That being said, I think that this unusual time can be used as a moment of refocusing for competitive athletes.

I’d challenge student-athletes to look to their sport for the reasons that they enjoy it, because those are what will help them to succeed in life after graduation. Of course, keep doing the workouts that your coaches have undoubtedly prescribed via email, but keep an eye out for how your training is improving your everyday life right now, even the little things. You can take that with you wherever you go.

"Alumni in Action" is an on-going series highlighting UC San Diego alumni in healthcare during COVID-19. Below are previous "Alumni in Action" conversations:

About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program begins a new era in 2020 as amember of the Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in DivisionsIII and II and helped guide more than 1,300 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 82 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 37 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego student-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.

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