Mesa mom of 9 graduates from Mayo Clinic’s medical school

MESA, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) -- It’s graduation time all across Arizona. But one Mesa woman took a little detour before going to med school and earning her degree. She put her dream of becoming a doctor on hold and started a family. Then, nine kids later, she went back to school. This past Friday, Sarah Merrill graduated from the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine, nearly 20 years after finishing her undergrad studies at Dartmouth College. This is Something Good!!

Dr. Sarah Merrill will move on to a neurological surgery residency program at Indiana University. She stopped by Good Morning Arizona to share how she balanced med school while raising her family. Her nine children range in age from 8 to 20. She and her husband married during her final year of college at Dartmouth, and she had nine children in twelve years. Her youngest was only four when she began medical school.

On how she balanced a rigorous med school schedule with raising her family, she said, “...it has been a team effort and a lot of flexibility. We’ve had months when I’ve been home a lot and a few months where I was out of state for rotations. My husband, mom, and older kids have all pitched in to take care of things when I was more busy, and I take over a lot of things when I’m less busy with school.”

Dr. Merrill said she always knew she wanted to be a doctor. But it wasn’t until she was in school at Mayo that she chose to go into Neurosurgery. She and her family will move to Indiana, where she’ll do her residency for the next seven years. Dr. Merrill is proof that you can do anything you put your mind to. She said, “I would encourage other women to develop their talents and passions as well, and would say that you can absolutely do that and have a family - whether you do them concurrently or in seasons is a personal choice, but it can be done!”

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