Student Spotlight: One to Watch

Shakira Harding ’23

Shakira Harding is full of contradictions. The 5’7” former college basketball star is strong but with a relaxed air. She is soft-spoken but talks in rapid-fire when she’s excited about a topic. She claims that she can’t dance, yet she finds herself dancing onstage regularly for charity with DiaBeats, the School of Medicine’s dance team. She says school is hard, but life shouldn’t be.

Perhaps it is her outgoing attitude that helped her get elected as the first-year medical school class president, last year. It is definitely her down-to-business work ethic that got her reelected this year. Shakira says that there are “three big things” that the first-year class president has to do. First, organize a ceremony to honor cadaver donors and their sacrifices to medical education. Second, coordinate the nomination for the Allen A. Copping Excellence in Teaching Award. Third, organize orientation for the next first-year class. This last task proved to be the most difficult. Shakira says, “With COVID I basically had to reinvent how everything was done.” Planning orientation during a pandemic required a dedicated, organized person with a creative edge—all of which happen to be her specialties.

Shakira talks a lot about paying it back. “I always knew I wanted to do something medical because I really like science and helping people.” She has chosen to concentrate on obstetrics and gynecology. “I feel like if you’re an OBGYN you really get to talk to your patients about not just what’s going on with them physically, but mentally as well. There’s a lot that goes into being a woman in today’s society, in addition to going through pregnancy. I think that would be a really cool way for me to connect with other women and guide them into that process.”

Shakira plans to help anxious first-time mothers give birth right here in Louisiana. Her calm demeanor and infectious joy for life is exactly what we need more of in the medical community. “I want to work in my hometown of Houma or maybe Lafayette. I never wanted to work in a big city. I just want to come back to the community that I grew up in and be a doctor.”