Five years ago, Spencer Singh was moving fast, climbing the ranks in investment banking through positions in New York City, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. While working in Houston in 2019, however, Singh's professional rise came to a screeching halt.
A motorcycle accident left Singh with multiple fractures of his spine, sternum, clavicle and shoulder. Through a months-long rehabilitation process, Singh was inspired by the neurosurgeons who saved his life - and reconsidered his own path.
"I've always been around health care and realized I wanted to work with my hands, not sit behind a desk," said Singh, whose father is a practicing obstetrician-gynecologist, and mother a former emergency responder. "After my accident, I wanted to help others the way I'd been helped."
Singh left banking in January 2022 with plans to return to college to earn the necessary pre-requisites he needed to apply to medical school. A 2014 Turpin High School graduate who wanted to move closer to home, fortunately Singh didn't need to look too far - the University of Cincinnati Clermont College in Batavia offered exactly the type of personalized environment he was looking for as a second-time student.
"I wanted a strong connection with my professors and small classes," Singh said. UC Clermont's current student-to-faculty ratio is 10:1. "Not a big lecture hall, but somewhere I could ask deeper questions, stay after class, and connect with professors and other students. I felt like I knew everyone when I came to class and that I was meant to be there."
Singh has taken most of his classes in person and even joined Student Government, for which he received a scholarship.
"It was a great opportunity," he said. "I felt like I could lead and make a difference on a smaller campus where you see your impact every day - and still felt like I was part of something bigger."
This December, Singh will add a Pre-Health Sciences: Pre-Medicine associate degree from UC Clermont to his previously earned bachelor's degree in finance from Miami University. He then plans to study for and take the Medical College Admission Test next June, with the goal of becoming a neurosurgeon.
But Singh is already gaining experience and building relationships in the field through work with mentors Rani Nasser, MD, and Charles Prestigiacomo, MD, both faculty members in UC's College of Medicine Department of Neurosurgery.
Singh serves as a medical scribe in the department, has shadowed the physicians in the operating room and published research with each during the last two years. He also works at the Academy of Medicine Cincinnati, the Ohio State Neurosurgical Society of Cincinnati and helps raise money locally for Mission Brain, a national 501(c)(3) that brings neurosurgical expertise and care to underserved areas around the globe.
Spencer Singh
"When it comes to neurosurgery, being able to have a patient fully give themselves to you, to embrace that moment and look within such sacred parts of the human body - the brain and spine - really intrigues me," Singh said. "It's the most prestigious acknowledgement someone could give you."
As Singh looks ahead to a promising career, he said UC Clermont has played an integral role in preparing him for his second professional pursuit. The college provided a nurturing environment while he gained the knowledge base and academic background needed for the MCAT and eventually, medical school - and saving lives.
"I feel like I'm ready for the next step," said Singh. "I want to give my future patients second chances at life, like I've had."
Featured image at top:: UC Clermont pre-medicine student Spencer Singh on the college's campus. Photos/Danny Kidd
