MSU medical student working with Detroit Lions for 2024 season

EAST LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - A Michigan State University medical student will spend a month with the Detroit Lions this upcoming season.

She’ll be working with team physicians as part of her clinical rotations this year.

The National Football League’s Diversity in Sports Medicine program will help people like Tamarandobra Ogeh diversify the league’s medical field.

Ogeh has dreamt of working in sports and wants to become an orthopedic surgeon. She was a star athlete in high school and college and excelled in rugby and said the chance to work with the lions is perfect.

“I loved Athletics. It was a place that I found discipline, was a place that I found camaraderie, a place that I found belonging,” said Ogeh. “Rugby’s always had a special place in my heart. There’s a certain camaraderie that you feel when you’re literally putting your body on the line for fellow teammates. It’s really exciting to be able to kind of work in the sport, especially in contact Sports where like healthcare and making sure that you have people who are really really trained to act quickly is really really important. So it’s exciting that you know, I’ve played rugby in the past and now I get to kind of continue working in that space.”

Ogeh and her family emigrated to Toronto from Nigeria when she was five years old, and she says she’s thankful for her chance to represent her home country in a unique field.

“Growing up. I was like, I want to be a doctor. I don’t know if I can if I’m being honest, I’d never saw a doctor that looked like me and a surgeon was like even more out of reach,” Ogeh said. “I was like, oh that’s never gonna happen. So it’s been really humbling just to kind of have these moments and have this opportunity to kind of read my own story. You know, I tell my story and then I read the article and I’m like, oh well, like I’ve this is me like I’ve done this.”

Ogeh said in addition to representing Nigeria, she’s excited to give back to her parents, who she said did everything they could to get her to where she is today.

Ogeh is somewhat of a trailblazer. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the number of African American medical students increased by nine percent over the last academic year.

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