A Knock on the Head: Frantzia Jeanty’s Introduction to Medicine
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Many physicians recall the moment they decided on a career in medicine. Fourth-year University of Miami Miller School of Medicine M.D/M.P.H. candidate Frantzia Jeanty was 12 years old and visiting Haiti when she came upon a group of panicked neighbors.
They had just witnessed a man get hit on the head by a coconut that had fallen from a tree. He was bleeding from his lip.
“It looked really bad,” said Jeanty. “They didn’t have first aid kits on hand, but I did.”
Jeanty, a first-generation American whose family often visited their native Haiti from their home in Pembroke Pines, ran back to her house and grabbed a first aid kit. She administered antibacterial ointment to the man’s lip, put a Band-Aid on it and told him to get it looked at.
“It was very natural to me,” she said. “I grew up in the U.S. where we have access to that kind of education. They teach you those things in school. I’d seen it on TV.”
Poised to Be a Mentor
Jeanty soon realized that she could bring more than first aid kits to Haiti.
“I saw I have something to give back to underserved communities,” she said, “and I wanted to help improve health care.”
This was a turning point for her. But being the first in her family to apply to medical school carried some challenges.
“It made my understanding of the application process less than it would have been if someone before me had gone through it,” Jeanty reflected.
It wasn’t until her junior year at the University of Miami, where she majored in health sciences and minored in chemistry, that she realized she was supposed to have taken the MCAT already.
“There were a lot of steps that premeds know,” she said, “like when to start getting letters of recommendation.”
Falling behind meant she had to work on a faster timetable.
“I learned a lot,” she said. “Because of the situation I was in, I now hope to become a mentor for people like me who don’t know what they need to do to become a doctor.”
Improving Cancer Outcomes
When Jeanty was working on her medical school applications, she was going over a few projects she’d been involved in as an undergraduate.
“A lot of answers to questions had to do with addressing health disparities,” she said. “As I contemplated what I wanted to do in the future, the public health track became more obvious to me.”
Jeanty didn’t wait for her M.D./M.P.H. to start giving back. She’s been volunteering at the Miller School’s free clinic at the Center for Haitian Studies. As an undergraduate she translated Haitian Creole at health fairs. As a medical student she works with patients.
The work involved scheduling patients, translating and helping with clinic logistics and making follow-up calls to check in with patients. Presently, as a regular upperclassman volunteer, she mentors first-year medical students.
Under the mentorship of Sophia George, Ph.D., associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the Miller School of Medicine, Jeanty assisted with research into breast cancer and ovarian cancer outcomes. Her project involved comparing samples of African Americans born in the U.S., Haitians who had been living in the U.S. for at least 10 years and Haitians who’d recently immigrated.
The team compared changes in the way that DNA is expressed to see if there are links that influence breast cancer outcomes among these three groups and whether the environment has an effect on those outcomes. The results are preliminary, she said, but it appears that there are more similarities between African Americans and long-term U.S. residents who are Haitian.
As she prepares for Match Day, Jeanty notes the significance of it for her and her family—“my biggest cheerleaders” she called them. She is pursuing a residency in internal medicine and pediatrics, with the ultimate goal of becoming a traveling physician in underserved communities worldwide.
Tags: internal medicine, Match Day, Match Day 2025, medical students, Miller School of Medicine, pediatrics, student leadership