Alina Watson (H’26) spent much of her childhood in waiting rooms at military and veterans hospitals with her dad.
For all of Watson’s life, her father lived with a severe neurological disability from his service as a U.S. Army tank commander. Watson helped care for her dad and went with him to his countless cardiology and neurology appointments.
In those waiting rooms, her dad repeatedly gave her a charge for her life.
“Go be a doctor, and help people like me,” Watson remembers her dad telling her.
She still thinks about his words all the time.
“Being in that position in such a formative time, it showed me what’s truly valuable in life. For me, that was a person’s health,” she said. “It was the most powerful thing I could have done with my life to honor my dad’s legacy.”
Watson’s dad passed away during her senior year of high school, months away before she started at Georgetown. But his words have fueled her through four years at Georgetown preparing to go to medical school.
“I knew that in being a doctor, it would be hard no matter what,” she said. “However, the privilege that I will get in being able to serve service members, veterans and their families is everything I had wanted. I knew that if I ever got the opportunity, I would want to treat, diagnose and serve people like my dad.”
Preparing for a Career in Medicine
Before her father passed away, Watson told him of her hopes to go to Georgetown. She remembers him saying how happy he would be to see her on the Hilltop and how great a doctor she would become.
As a health care management and policy major in the School of Health, Watson chose Georgetown for its liberal arts education to prepare her for a career in medicine.
“I especially wanted to come to Georgetown because it was my two loves. I love science, and I love being creative, being a musician, writing, those kinds of things.”
During her first year, she took an emergency medical services course. She has since spent most of her summers working as a certified EMT near her home in Mechanicsburg in southern Pennsylvania. When no other EMTs were available during the school year, she’d sometimes return home on weekends to ensure that patients got the care they needed.
As an EMT in a rural and mountainous area, Watson’s calls ranged from routine house visits to mountain rescues of patients needing critical care.
“It changed my outlook on things and made me grateful for every day I have at Georgetown because not everybody has another day.”
During her sophomore year, Watson joined the Firefighters’ Burn and Surgical Research Lab at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. She contributed to research on scarring, fluid resuscitation and shock. The lab excited her because its work directly impacted first responders and service members, the population she would like to work with as a physician.
For her senior thesis, Watson wanted to contribute to the veteran community by researching the impact of federal legislation on veteran suicide rates.
“Growing up in the military health system, I saw how prevalent the struggle was with mental health, yet people didn’t talk about it,” she said.
She interviewed physicians, scholars, veterans and policymakers on Capitol Hill. She also developed a county-level model that tracked veteran suicide rates.
Her research found a statistically significant correlation between lower veteran suicide rates after the passage of the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act, which expanded mental health resources for veterans and implemented programs to better recruit psychiatrists for the Veterans Health Administration.
“It’s been very meaningful and hopeful to see the results that came out of this,” she said. “I’ve truly loved it, and it means something to so many people, so I’m glad I could touch upon that and talk to people who have had experiences with suicide.”
Music as an Instrument for Care
While Watson hopes to serve patients as a physician, she’s also been serving patients as a musician.
Every year on his birthday at home, Watson’s dad asked her to play him old-time songs on the violin.
He loved having loved ones and volunteers visit him while he was in the hospital.
His words inspired Watson to teach herself to sing and play the guitar so she could perform for hospital patients. As a sophomore, she found Musicians on Call, a national organization that brings music to patients and their families in hospitals.
“I found something that was so me, that I could do what I wanted to do and where I would love to work someday,” she said.
Watson has also volunteered with the Georgetown University Lombardi Ensemble and Association for Patients, playing music once a month for patients at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.
She has played for patients in intensive care units, hospice, after surgeries and pediatric care settings. While music had previously been a solitary activity, playing for people in health care settings allowed her to share her gift with others, she said.
“Through that, I’ve seen how transcendental music is. It doesn’t matter if you don’t speak English. None of the traditional barriers are there when it comes to music,” she said. “This was the one thing I loved to do. One of the highest honors is to make other people happy.”
Even after she graduates, she’s determined to keep performing music for patients because it’s a way for her to live out her Orthodox Christian faith in using her gifts for good.
“At Georgetown, it’s the Magis, for the greater good, for the communal good. Playing at hospitals and in my work as an EMT, it meant so much more than just me doing something. I felt as though there was meaning behind it, not only for the community, but also for my faith and who I was as a person.”
For Her Dad
Throughout her college career, Watson has had the same image on her desktop that she sees every day. It’s a photo of a handwritten note from her dad with a simple but powerful message:
“Keep going. You will succeed at anything.”
Her father’s service and sacrifice have always inspired Watson. He’s the reason that she’s not only pursuing medicine but also serving in the military.
“Through his life, he truly instilled in me that service comes before self,” she said. “I carry that with me. I remember that almost every day.”
This fall, Watson will start medical school at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Watson will train alongside some of the nation’s top military doctors with hopes of becoming a Navy surgeon.
Watson wishes her dad could have seen her earn her Georgetown degree. But, in a way, he was still with her at commencement.
On graduation day, Watson walked across the stage honoring her dad. She wore her graduation cap decorated with the seal of the Uniformed Services University and photos of her with her mom and dad. Her dad’s dog tags jangled in her hands.
