The Degree They Never Expected Her to Earn

On January 23, 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell walked across the stage at Geneva Medical College in upstate New York and received her Doctor of Medicine degree — the first ever granted to a woman in the United States. She had graduated first in her class.

The road there had been anything but easy. After deciding to pursue medicine, Blackwell applied to dozens of medical schools across the country. Every one rejected her. Geneva Medical College only admitted her because the faculty, unsure what to do with her application, put the decision to a vote among the all-male student body — who approved it unanimously, believing the whole thing was a prank from a rival school. It was no prank. Blackwell arrived, endured ridicule and isolation, and outperformed them all.

What kept her going? A settled conviction that she had been called to this work. Not ambition for its own sake, but a deep belief that healing was the purpose God had set before her.

Paul wrote from a Roman prison, "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13). He was not boasting in his own resilience. He was testifying that when God places a calling on your life, He also supplies the strength to see it through — even when every door slams shut, even when the people around you treat your calling as a joke.

The strength to persevere in your calling was never yours to manufacture. It has always been His to give.