With a practicing nurse for a mother, Darlene Duncan ’05 saw patient care firsthand. She says the compassion her mother and other medical professionals showed for their patients inspired her to become a doctor. A James Scholar on the Rockford campus of the University of Illinois College of Medicine, Duncan recently returned from a two-month medical mission to Niger, West Africa, where she learned first-hand about the medical needs of people in developing countries. Rather than being put off by the lack of resources there, she says she enjoyed the responsibility and the impact she had on her patients’ lives. Duncan is now in an internal medicine residency at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. In addition to learning more about the research taking place there, she is gaining insights into patient care and looking for ways to ensure new technologies don’t make medical care too impersonal. Medicine still comes down to the patient,” she says. After completing her residency, Duncan hopes to secure a fellowship in pulmonary critical care or infectious diseases