Photo by Tom Campbell

Dr. Scott Renshaw sees about 50 patients a week at this Indianapolis clinic that specializes in treating patients who are typically underserved by the medical community.

Purdue and Vincennes University worked together to get Renshaw enrolled. All of his credits from Vincennes transferred to Purdue, which meant Renshaw would not have to repeat any course he had already taken.

And Purdue had opportunities away from the classroom that would help Renshaw grow as a person, too.

“That’s one of the things my mom wanted to make sure I did at Purdue, to grow as a person: ‘Branch out, Scott, force yourself to branch out.’ She even sent me a picture of a tree. Under the tree it said ‘Are you branching out?’”

The introverted Renshaw was forcing himself to branch out. He joined Ag Ambassadors, a student leadership organization in the College of Agriculture.

“That was good for me,” Renshaw says. “It forced me to get out and meet people in situations that previously had made me uncomfortable.”

Sure, coursework was getting more difficult, but nothing like what would be thrown at him in medical school.

“Coursework in high school was like drinking water out of a glass,” Renshaw says, not too difficult. As expected, college was more difficult but manageable, like drinking out of a garden hose. But medical school? “Well, that was like trying to get a drink when you are standing in front of a fire hydrant,” Renshaw explains.

As he moved steadily toward his graduation, earning degrees simultaneously in food process engineering and biochemistry, Renshaw’s old feelings about becoming a doctor resurfaced, with a big assist from his brother, Eric.

“My brother and I were driving back to Purdue after fall break in October of 1994, the same way we had done many times,” Renshaw recalls.

The three-hour trip from their Vincennes home to Purdue’s West Lafayette campus was long enough for the Renshaw brothers to broach all subjects under the moon and the stars.

“Eric had applied for vet school. He was really excited and probably a little more focused about what he wanted to do for a living. He asked me if I had given serious consideration to medical school, since, aside from teaching, it was really the only other occupation I really thought about when I was in high school.”

For the next three nights, Renshaw tossed and turned in bed, conducting nightly wrestling matches with his own future.

He had interviewed with several companies interested in hiring him for his agricultural engineering expertise. Kraft Foods offered him a job in Chicago. The company was about to unveil a new cracker product and wanted Renshaw to head up the team responsible for all facets of manufacturing the new product.

That idea intrigued Renshaw. Had it not been for the incredible timing of the U.S. Postal Service, Renshaw would have eagerly accepted Kraft’s offer.

“On the same day I got the job offer (just prior to graduation in December 1995), I got a letter informing me that I had been accepted to medical school,” Renshaw says, “so I had to call Kraft and tell them ‘thanks, but no thanks.’”

But medical school didn’t start for another eight months. Not one to sit idly by while waiting for the next phase of his life to begin, Renshaw returned home to southern Indiana and hired on as a substitute teacher in his old school district.

“I think I taught just about every grade level and about every course except band,” Renshaw says.

The experience, he says, was tremendous, although at times it made him feel a little awkward.

“It hadn’t been that long since I was a student and had to call the teachers ‘Mr.’ or ‘Mrs.’ Now I was a teacher, too, and I wasn’t sure what I should call the other teachers.”

Renshaw took advantage of his spare evening hours to give a part of himself back to Vincennes University, as an English, math and physics tutor. All of which gave him the chance, once and for all, to make sure he hadn’t made a mistake by building on his father’s hospital career, or by following his mother’s career as a teacher.

So Renshaw did the admirable thing. He decided to follow both paths.

Three days a week, Renshaw sees about 50 patients at a clinic on the near east side of Indianapolis as a faculty fellow of the Indiana University School of Medicine Underserved Medicine Program.

On Tuesdays, Renshaw is back on the Indiana University School of Medicine campus, teaching Introduction to Clinical Medicine, where first-year medical school students learn how do deal with patients.

And Thursdays? Well, that’s the day Renshaw works on his research to fulfill part of his fellowship requirements. Once he completes his fellowship, Renshaw hopes to become a full-time medical school faculty member.

“I’m learning to be a doctor that teaches medicine,” Renshaw says. “It’s all fitting together so perfectly.”

And his parents could not be prouder.

Contact Renshaw at serensha@iupui.edu