DR. TRAVIS BOYD '09
Beating App State at home the week after they beat Michigan was pretty awesome, but I think my favorite memory was senior year when playing Chattanooga at home. I got in the game at halfback, caught a pitch on an option and broke for a 50-yard run. After the game my mom handed me an acceptance letter from the University of Louisville School of Medicine. Great day.
My favorite Wofford memory is the long walk from Old Main down Campus Drive and out the front gates on graduation day. The road was lined with professors, mentors, coaches, classmates and alumni, and they were all clapping and patting us on the back. It was a very powerful and emotional moment.
In order to excel or even survive as a student-athlete at Wofford you have to be goal-oriented and disciplined. Good luck being successful in any endeavor without those traits. The further you go after college, the less defined and obvious the goals become. There isn’t a test every couple of weeks to study for or an upcoming game to prepare for. I am thankful for my experience at Wofford because I learned how to set goals and be disciplined enough to put in the work.
Dr. G.R. Davis took me under his wing and mentored me starting the spring of my sophomore year. He was my assigned advisor after I declared biology as my major. My life changed the day I walked into his office for our first meeting. I knew nothing about him before that meeting and left it with the feeling that he had a vested interest in my success.
After Wofford I went on to the University of Louisville School of Medicine. I became interested in plastic and reconstructive surgery early in my third year of medical school after shadowing one of the younger plastic surgeons at the university for a week. Before that, like many, I thought plastic surgery was just cosmetic surgery. I was blown away by the variety of procedures he performed and the complexity involved in doing so. From there I focused my attention on getting into a plastic surgery residency and ended up matching at the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas. During my six years of residency, I became interested in hand and upper extremity surgery and went on to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center for a one-year fellowship.
I am now in my first year of practice back in Dallas where I am on faculty at the University of Texas Southwestern. I operate mostly at Parkland Hospital doing a wide variety of reconstructive microsurgery and hand surgery. I love that in a given day I could be looking into a microscope to repair the nerves in the hand after a gunshot wound and later doing breast reconstruction after breast cancer.
My advice to all Wofford students is to reach out to your professors and build relationships. Wofford is a special place and unique in that you have the opportunity to actually know your professors. They’re there because they value having a relationship with Wofford students. Take advantage of it.
My advice to student-athletes is to bring the same level of intensity to your education as you do your sports. If you can do both, you should excel at both.