Do you have an entrepreneurial spirit? Do you feel "corporate America" is right for you and plan to become a CEO of a major corporation? Don't have tunnel vision! Why not put those business skills to use by leading and managing the operations of a hospital? Keep reading to find out what it takes to be a business leader in the health care field. 

Kevin McCowan was UNC Hospitals' first African-American male general surgery resident. But that's something he rarely thinks about. McCowan says his primary concern is his patients' welfare. 
            
"I have very positive relations with my patients," he said, "because I listen and spend time with them and they appreciate that. I truly love what I do."
            
The oldest of three boys, McCowan grew up in Anderson, SC, a small town located near Clemson University. "I believed at a very early age that I could do whatever I wanted," he said. "My family was very supportive and always told me that the only barriers that would stop me would be those I created for myself. When I was thirteen years old I made the decision to become a doctor. I've stuck with it ever since." 
            
With ten varsity letters under his belt, McCowan was offered a full scholarship during his senior year to play football at Presbyterian College, a small school in Clinton, S.C. Two weeks before he was to report to camp, however, McCowan said he got a funny feeling that he just wasn't supposed to go there. "I don't know why, but for some reason I decided I wanted to go to a historically black institution, and my family, friends and teachers kept telling me that Morehouse College was where I needed to be. Apparently they knew something that I didn't."
            
McCowan shared the idea of attending Morehouse with his football coach, who immediately got on the phone with the college, sent of a copy of McCowan's transcript and a roll of game film. McCowan was offered a full scholarship the next day. He had no idea what he was in for. 
            
I'll never forget the first semester," he recalled. "I had the most difficult chemistry professor there, with class on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8 a.m. I sat down front, only missed one lecture and made a F. I was destroyed!"
            
But McCowan toughed it out and graduated from Morehouse in 1986 with a bachelor's degree in chemistry. He didn't feel like he was prepared for medical school, so on the advice of a faculty advisor, McCowan headed for graduate school at the UNC- CH School of Public Health. Out-of-state tuition became too much of a burden for McCowan, and he had to take a semester off. 
           
During his time off, McCowan worked as a medical technologist at Duke University Medical Center. The job afforded him some valuable educational experiences, but his heart was still in the classroom.
            
In 1987, McCowan was accepted into the Medical Education Development (MED) Program and finished the program in the top three. He returned to graduate studies in the fall of 1987 and in the spring of 1988 McCowan was accepted into a dual degree, the Medicine-Public Health program at UNC-CH. 
            
McCowan has had the opportunity to travel to England and Europe for surgical research and several third-year clerkships. He completed a clerkship in trauma and neurosurgery at Harlem Hospital in New York, a year of transplantation immunological research in the UNC Department of Surgery and a year as president of the UNC Chapter of the Student National Medical Association and the John B. Graham Student Research Society. 
          
McCowan graduated from the UNC General Surgery Residency Program in 1999 and now works at a private practice in Georgia. He has come a long way and has paved the road for other kids to follow in his footsteps.  
           
"I have a tremendous responsibility to my community. I take it personally when kids drop out of school or the less-fortunate cannot receive proper medical attention."
            
McCowan considers it a personal responsibility to be a role model for minority kids. He hopes to show them that they can achieve everything he has and more.