oteworthy
Michelle Burdette '86 from Madison Finds Success in Medicine BY LINDSEY BYARS
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ichelle Burdette was born and raised in Summers County, West Virginia. Her father and most of her family worked on the railroad, an industry that served as the main source of employment for the area when Michelle was growing up.
“In Hinton, or Summers County, we don’t have coal mines so the railroad is the main employer,” she says. Her mother worked in billing at the local hospital, one of the other major employers in the rural area. Michelle’s career aspirations would eventually lead her to a similar work environment, but not in the town where she grew up. The community of Hinton was tight knit, so much so that Michelle and a group of her friends commuted to Concord together after they graduated from Hinton High School. The college was a short drive from their home, so sharing the cost of fuel and forgoing room and board helped Michelle save money for the
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degree that would come after she graduated from Concord. “There were several people from my high school class, that if we had classes at the same time, we were able to carpool together, so it wasn’t too bad. Until we had snow storms,” Michelle says. Commuting may not have given Michelle a traditional college experience, but she was focused on her academics more than her social life on campus. She majored in Biology and minored in Chemistry with a career goal aimed towards the medical field. “I kind of always wanted to go into medicine,” Michelle says. “I thought at one point, I was thinking maybe pharmacy. And then I decided I
