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The Auburn Plainsman: Welcome Back 2020
August 13, 2020
CAMPUS
FILE PHOTO
Dr. Fred Kam, Dr. Ricardo Maldonado and Brooke Bailey hold a press conference to address the threat of coronavirus on March 5, 2020.
‘I do what I’m doing because I love it’
Dr. Kam, director of the AU Med Clinic, shares his story By COLLINS KEITH Assistant Editor
While a brief glance at the plaques and accolades around his office reveals that he is a man of many talents, Dr. Frederick Kam, director of the Auburn University Medical Clinic, is a family man. With three grown daughters and a wife and mother-in-law at home, Kam has a love for welcoming people. He is committed to dinner with his daughter’s boyfriend and Auburn college game days with family and friends. And that love for community is what brought him to Auburn. Born in Trinidad and Tobago, Kam’s attitude and capabilities were quickly recognized by both his teachers and parents at a young
age, and preparations were made to send him to high school in England. While his future was laid out for him from a young age, for Kam, the decision really only came down to two professions. “I’ve only ever wanted to become two things in my life. One was a doctor, and the second was a Catholic priest,” said Kam with a laugh. “The Catholic priest went out the door when I was 12 years old; I guess puberty, hormones, whatever you want to call it … I was like, not priesthood, medicine.” According to Kam, he knew he wanted to study medicine by age seven. While he had an intrinsic love for it, attending Catholic school and seeing commercials and documentaries on TV about children in Africa in need of medical care only served to reinforce those ideals.
“In those days and times, they used to have these documentaries or ads that would show you, which would just tear at your heart, kids starving in Ethiopia and Uganda and the Congo,” said Kam. “So you always felt that you [had]to go there … that you had to do what you [could]. [It] was very emotionally moving.” For high school, Kam moved to Birkenhead, England, right across the Mersey river from Liverpool. It was there that he further developed his skills and prepared for University; not in Trinidad and Tobago or England, but in the States, at the University of Miami. At Miami, as much as he enjoyed studying medicine, Kam loved learning about all the new American sports that he hadn’t been exposed to in Trinidad and Tobago or England. “When I came in as a Freshman, I came in
as an international student. I played British sports my whole life: cricket, soccer; which I call football, tennis, badminton, all those things,” said Kam. “So as a freshman at the University of Miami, I had to learn American sports; one of which was football. So I was very excited about learning new things.” At the University of Miami, according to Kam, he also got very involved with Student Government. As an international student in just his second semester at college, Kam co-led the SGA campaign at Miami, and as a sophomore, Kam was the chief-of-staff to the SGA president. Kam took an accelerated course load at the University of Miami, and after three years, he graduated, applying and being accepted into medical school at Miami. In medical school, Kam was named president of his class.
