Columbia Falls native accepted to Harvard Medical School

Derrick Williams set school records in track and field and was the class president when he attended Columbia Falls High School eight years ago. For Colorado State University-Peublo he was an all-American runner and in 2018, the Rocky Mountain Athletic Association’s Academic Indoor and Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year. Toward the end of his college career, he specialized in the steeplechase.

He graduated with both a master’s and bachelor’s degree in biology with a grade point average of 3.99.

Now he’s been accepted to Harvard Medical School.

Williams, the son of Mara and Ray Williams, said he first considered a career in medicine back when he was a freshman at Carroll College. Carroll has an excellent pre-med program. But after an assembly that explained the coursework, he didn’t think he could pursue his college running career and handle the academics.

He ended up transferring to CSU-Peublo the following year and in his junior year in Colorado, he job-shadowed a physician. That’s when he knew he wanted to be a doctor, he said in a recent interview.

His grade point average is almost perfect — his only blemish is an A-minus in organic chemistry lab — a class that is well known for its difficulty. But still, the minus grinds on him a little.

After receiving his master’s degree last spring and taking the Medical College Admissions Test, he started applying to medical schools across the country. Harvard was one of 22. That may sound like a lot, but the average student applies to 24, he said.

He was interviewed by 14 of those schools and was accepted to 13.

“I was on the road all but five days in September,” he said.

Each school had different interview techniques — prospective students are required to sign non-disclosure agreements against revealing specific questions.

Harvard, he recalled, was a traditional interview, with traditional questions. It happened in early October. Then the waiting began. Months of it.

“It was agonizing,” Williams recalled. The typical don’t-call-us, we’ll-call-you.

He was close to accepting another school’s offer when, in February, he got an email of all things. Congratulations. You’ve been accepted to Harvard Medical School.

The phone rang about 20 minutes later with a call from a Harvard representative congratulating him as well.

Williams said he was at work at the time. CSU-Peublo has a research lab and Williams has been working on experiments with different seeds. When they’re eaten, some seeds seem to exude compounds that could kill cancer cells as they ferment in the gut.

It could be useful in future colon cancer treatments.

The call from Harvard came during an experiment. He took the time to call his fiancée, Bailey Hughes, and his parents.

Then he went back to work. You just can’t leave an experiment in the middle of it, he noted.

As far as his running career, Williams says he runs for fun nowadays and to stay in shape.

Williams and Hughes are planning a wedding in Jamaica next winter, when travel restrictions are eased due to the coronavirus. Hughes was a standout runner for Flathead High School. Ray Williams is a native of Jamaica.

The couple will move to Boston this fall.

Then the real work begins. Four years of medical school and then four years of residency.

“I want kids in small towns to know they can make it,” Williams said.