HARRISON...your dreams are valid, even if you have to take the long road to reach them
‘Write your own yes’
Jamaican secures spot in competitive surgical programme in the US
WHEN his dream of becoming a surgeon was shattered due to financial challenges, Dr Daron Harrison — driven by the belief that he just needed an opportunity to show what he was made of in order to succeed — never lost faith in his mission.
Now accepted into the residency programme at the University of Miami in the US, where he’ll specialise in otolaryngology — head and neck surgery — the 31-year-old shares his story of resilience and how surrounding himself with people who saw his potential landed him his dream job.
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A former Kingston College student who grew up in Kingston before moving to Spanish Town, St Catherine, Harrison shared that he fell in love with the sciences in high school.
“I always felt that medicine was that one thing that would be the most impactful thing for me to do, given that I’m good at science. It’s the way that allows me to touch and have the most impact on people in my life and around me. I enjoyed learning about the human body,” he told the Jamaica Observer.
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While he said there was no defining moment that led him to believe a career as a surgeon was his destiny, he vividly recalled experiencing a hurricane that left some residents of his community needing medical attention.
“I remember seeing relief workers coming to the community after the storm and seeing the doctors making their way around. They were doing such a great job, coming in to relieve all this stress and chaos after the hurricane. I thought to myself that I would love to be in that position, to offer that type of relief to people,” said Harrison.
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After completing his Bachelor of Science in Biology in 2015 at The University of the West Indies (The UWI), he applied to join the school’s medical programme and was accepted. However, Harrison said he was barred from his final examinations in his first semester because he had not paid his tuition in full.
A first-generation university graduate whose mom was unemployed and father was working in the Cayman Islands, he said he was unable to get a student loan. Harrison said he was devastated but never lost hope, and always held the view that all he needed was an opportunity.
“I just knew that ‘I’m not here [at The UWI] right now. I’m not able to do this because I don’t have the opportunity, and given the right opportunity I would be able to do it.’ In my head I would just keep seeking out ways to get back into medicine,” he said.
A master of taekwondo, Harrison shared that he moved to the Cayman Islands in 2016 to become a taekwondo instructor and physical therapist. It was there he met Dr Tenson Edmonds, a fellow KC alumnus who became a mentor. Together they founded their own taekwondo school.
Still refusing to give up on his dream of becoming a surgeon, Harrison shared that he saved his portion of the revenue to put towards medical school.
He recalled a brief moment of sadness when he saw his batch mates from The UWI medical programme graduating in 2020, and thinking that if he had the finances he would be graduating too.
However, within that same period, Harrison said his prayers were answered when the Cayman Islands Government moved school online and dropped tuition fees due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and he was now able to afford medical school.
Harrison said that using the money he made from his taekwondo school, he enrolled in St Matthew’s University School of Medicine — a United States-accredited offshore medical school in the Cayman Islands.
He then developed a friendship with Thomas Simpson, a Canadian businessman and former patient. He shared that witnessing his passion for medicine, Simpson made a bet with him that if he graduated medical school at the top of his class he would give him a private loan to complete his residency in the US.
For the next two years Harrison said he studied diligently while working part-time. He graduated top of his class in 2022, receiving both the dean’s and chancellor awards. He called Simpson and told him the news.
“We met and he wrote me a loan which was similar to what the United States medical students use in their federal system,” Harrison shared.
The aspiring surgeon then moved to the US in 2022 and stayed with a family friend while studying for his first board certification examinations. Two months later he was successful, and because of the programme’s design, had to complete his clinical rotations at different hospitals across the US.
“I ended up living in six to 12 different states. I was in Baltimore, I was in Miami, Orlando, and Chicago… Wherever my school sent me to go do these clinical rotations I would just have to get up and go, and so that’s why the funding was so important because I wouldn’t have been able to do any of that travelling, and funding all that boarding by myself,” said Harrison.
“At that point it was fun, it was exciting, and it was great to see all these American cities. It was also great to finally get to rotate with other medical students from the US medical schools…when I got to sit around the table with these US medical students I was like, ‘Okay, they are just like me. I know as much as them, I study just like how they study,’ ” he laughed, adding that before this he felt he was alone in his journey.
When it was time to choose his specialty Harrison shared that as an international student he felt that choosing general surgery was his best chance at becoming a surgeon in the US.
However, while doing his general surgery rotation he met Dr Scott Magnuson, director of head and neck surgery at AdventHealth Celebration in Florida, who asked him about his story and invited him to watch some of his surgical operations.
Harrison was fascinated by some of the surgical practices and found himself stopping by more often to witness the operations.
He recalled once sitting with Dr Magnuson who, after learning that he wanted to become a general surgeon, told him: “You don’t want to be a general surgeon, you just think general surgery is the only thing you can do, but if you want to do something more, you should let me know.”
Unsure of how this would be possible, because otolaryngology was one of the most competitive specialties, Harrison said he was encouraged by Dr Magnuson to publish research to stand out among applicants. He added that Dr Magnuson encouraged him to apply for a research fellowship at different hospitals, and told him that he would write him a letter of recommendation.
Seeing this as an opportunity to dream bigger, Harrison said he published two research papers and applied for a fellowship at different hospitals.
He was accepted as a research fellow in otolaryngology at the University of Tennessee, where he completed his final two medical school rotations under the leadership of Dr Boyd Gillespie, chairman of the department. Harrison said he went on to publish research and present at national conferences, with his main focus on cancer outcome recourses as well as virtual surgical planning and 3D printing for head and neck cancer reconstruction.
After many sleepless nights Harrison applied to the US National Resident Matching Program for head and neck surgery in the fall of 2024, praying that he would be accepted.
He shared that it was a nerve-racking moment because the medical specialty has fewer than 400 positions available across the US, and only a handful are offered to international students.
The result: Harrison matched into the programme at the University of Miami, said to be one of the top head and neck surgical residency programmes in the country. He is expected to start his residency in July 2025.
“It was a complete shock,” he told the Sunday Observer.
“I ranked the University of Miami as my number one but I had no idea I would ever get into the University of Miami head and neck surgery programme. I opened the email and I saw it, and I was just in complete shock…” he recounted.
Looking back at his journey, Harrison said he was lucky to find people who believed in him and who were willing to help. He spoke about the power of having a community and the importance of helping others.
“I name-dropped the persons in my [interview] intentionally, because I would not be here without them. I think it’s so important for people who get there to be happy in their role, so that when they see younger ones like me coming through they are more than willing to help us,” he reasoned.
“If I had not met the [Dr Tenson Edmonds], if I had not met [Tom Simpson], if I had not met Dr Scott Magnuson, my chairman here at the University of Tennessee — which are the same people that ended up writing my letters of recommendations — I wouldn’t be here. When I went to do my interviews they were saying, ‘Just your recommendations alone tells me everything I need to know about you, and how you work with people, and what people see in you.’ It means a lot to me and it’s something that I hold on to very dearly,” he shared.
Harrison noted that “it takes a community, especially for people like me — people that come from modest backgrounds”.
He encouraged other Jamaican medical students who might be facing similar challenges to keep pushing and building a network of influential people who believe in them and can help them to achieve their goal.
Harrison said he once thought there was no light at the end of the tunnel but has come to realise that “as Jamaicans, as people who know how to fight and to grind, the light is already in us. What we need to do is get into the spaces where we can shine that light.
“Most of the times what we lack is the opportunity and not the work ethic. Not the determination or the grind, just the opportunity, so keep pushing, keep reaching out. Keep finding your circle and the people who believe in you. Keep associating yourself with people that want you to go places. With a little bit of luck, hopefully, you will be able to accomplish the dreams that you set out for yourself,” he said.
Harrison also reminded students that there are multiple ways they can achieve their goal, and encouraged them that “even when the system says no, you can still write your own yes”.
“Your dreams are valid, even if you have to take the long road to reach them,” he encouraged.
Now working on another research paper, Harrison said he is eager to start his residency at the University of Miami. He admitted that the journey was rocky, but he is happy that he’s made it.
“When I was interviewing at different places around the country and people would hear my story…they were like, ‘Wow, your story is so amazing,’ and I would say, ‘It’s amazing now, when you look back at it, but when I was going through it there was nothing amazing about it,’ ” he laughed.
“There was nothing amazing about the struggles to get funding, and to move, and to not know if you’re going to pay the next semester, but now it’s amazing because of all the lessons that I’ve learnt — and now it’s like the story has been completed,” he said.
While his journey has taken him to the US, he shared that he will never forget Jamaica.
Harrison noted that, unlike the US, Jamaica is not far advanced in head and neck surgery research and procedures so he hopes to, in the future, establish partnerships to get Jamaican patients the help they need.
“When I was applying to the head and neck surgical programme I was questioning, ‘Do I really want to do this?’ and then my friend sent me a video with a young kid in Jamaica who had a head and neck tumour growing on the outside of his face. He would constantly post on
TikTok asking for funds to get his surgery done,” he recalled.
“I was watching his video thinking, ‘Oh, we do this every day in Tennessee,’ and that shows me that I’m doing exactly what I need to do. I am exactly where I need to be at so that, eventually, we can open access to certain sub-specialised surgical care that is not accessible in the Caribbean region,” said Harrison.
Dr Daron Harrison (right) with his mentor Dr Scott Magnuson who encouraged him to pursue otolaryngology.
Dr Daron Harrison will begin his residency in otolaryngology at the University of Miami in July 2025.
Dr Daron Harrison (centre) with his mentor Dr Tenson Edmond (left) and Canadian businessman Thomas Simpson.
