After first wanting to pursue a career as a veterinarian, the top student at Edinburgh Community High School decided she wanted to help people instead after job shadowing in the emergency room.
In the Columbus Regional Hospital emergency room, Mary Franklin-Burkman saw how sprained ankles, broken wrists and broken toes were treated. She already knew about the medical field, since her mother works as an emergency room nurse. But after spending a couple hours watching the staff in action, she knew she needed to go into the medical field to help people, she said.
Franklin-Burkman recently graduated as the valedictorian of Edinburgh Community High School. And this fall, she will attend the University of Indianapolis to major in human biology. Her goal is to be an anesthesiologist’s assistant, and hopes to enroll in IUPUI’s anesthesiologist’s assistant program after earning her bachelor’s degree.
For years, Franklin-Burkman thought she was destined to be a veterinarian. A few hours actually helping people when they needed it most made her change her career path, she said.
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“I really like helping people, I am really caring,” Franklin-Burkman said.
Getting into the required college programs would take top grades. Franklin-Burkman found out her grade-point average was high enough to earn her the top spot at the end of her sophomore year.
Before that, she had hoped to land the third spot — avoiding the requirement to give a speech at graduation.
On top of her academics, she also wanted to make time to play softball and basketball and do her best, so she knew she had to use her time wisely to juggle everything, she said.
Franklin-Burkman sometimes left assignments to the last minute, skipping lunch to write an English paper and staying up until 2 a.m. some nights to study. She also always took a study hall.
“I think I managed my stress pretty well,” she said.
Some classes were harder than others, but she tried to make time for all of the assignments, she said.
“There were classes I cared about more than others,” Franklin-Burkman said.
Her mother always drilled in her that school was important and Franklin-Burkman always wanted to do her best, she said.
“Everyone has always been really proud of me for it,” Franklin-Burkman said.
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Name: Mary Franklin-Burkman
Parents: Angel and Bryan Burkman
GPA: 4.1
School: Edinburgh Community High School
College: University of Indianapolis
Major: Human biology
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