It all started in a college laundry room, where Chris Howard, DO '23, was tending
to some dirty clothes, and Molly Blew, PhD '23, walked in. He was stunned at the sight
of her.
“I just started blabbering,” Howard recalled of the encounter at Ursinus College during their freshman year.
He was a biology major. She studied psychology. Their sorority and fraternity were close-knit organizations, and the pair spent a lot of time at the library before they officially started dating about a year and a half after that first interaction.
“I’m more of a quiet person, so I was just like, ‘Why is this person talking to me in the laundry room?’ Blew recalled with a laugh. “I’m just trying to do my laundry.”
Blew, of Doylestown, and Howard, of Upper Dublin, have encountered their share of joys and challenges since their time at Ursinus. Blew went on to earn her graduate degree in school psychology at the University of Delaware while Howard worked as a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. The first time the couple lived together was in Aberdeen, Maryland, when the neuroscience lab Howard worked in relocated to the University of Maryland.
Howard applied to medical school as Blew practiced as a school psychologist. She wanted to see where he ended up so that she could find a doctoral program that wouldn’t separate them.
The place: PCOM.
The purpose: A doctor of osteopathic medicine degree for him, and an educational psychology doctorate for her.
On May 19, they’ll both participate in PCOM’s Commencement.
“A big part of our relationship has been supporting each other’s academic careers,” Blew said.
Upon Howard’s acceptance to PCOM, the couple moved from Maryland to Philadelphia, with Howard buoyed by the feedback he had received during the admissions process, including recognition that he balanced a bio major with being an athlete (a four-year football player, at running back and safety). “These people get it and see me for who I am,” Howard recalled thinking.
Then COVID hit.
Learning of the formation of the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium, founded by Dr. Ala Stanford, Howard jumped at the opportunity to volunteer.
“This is the whole reason I went to medical school, to help with medical access and equity,” Howard said. “This is literally why I’m here.”
He volunteered for a year, serving on the frontlines of the pandemic response and
helping to bring testing and vaccines into Black communities across Philadelphia.
He said he fell in love with the people and the work, sometimes volunteering over
40 hours a week while being a full-time student.
“There were definitely many times I did break down and cry. I remember toward the very beginning, people coming in and having firsthand experience that a father, mother or grandmother passed away, and they couldn’t go to the funerals and how grateful they were at that point for us just testing them,” Howard said. “It confirmed I was doing the right thing and that my path in medicine, no matter how arduous it was, was the right path, and I’m where I’m meant to be.”
Meanwhile, Blew was thrown into remote work and was forming her dissertation topic: how adolescents are being prepared to critically interpret information. The backdrop, of course, was raging misinformation during the pandemic and as significant racial justice issues and protests captured the country’s attention.
Amid all of the national uncertainty, the couple found out that Blew was pregnant. Their son, Wesley, is now 18 months old, with a cannon of a throwing arm and a motor for a mouth. “He flirts with everyone at the grocery store,” Blew said. “Everyone loves him. He’s sitting there saying, ‘Hi, hi, hi.”
As they approach graduation, Howard is slated to begin residency in General Surgery while Blew will continue her job as a school psychologist. Considering what they’ve been through the past four years, they’re ready for the next step.
“If I was able to get through COVID while taking my boards while also having a child and having a spouse who was also getting her doctorate, it can’t get much harder than that,” Howard said.
In addition to realizing his dream of becoming a surgeon, Howard wants to show “what people who look like me can do.” As a symbol of his journey, Howard notes that the picture on his PCOM student ID features a close-cropped hairstyle.
“That was the last haircut I got,” he said. “I wanted to grow my hair out so that, hopefully and thankfully, when I got to the point where I started my career, young Black boys and girls could look at me and say, ‘Look at his hair and look at his skin, and he’s a doctor.’”
“You can’t reach for what you can’t see,” he added.
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