NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — Life has been a wild ride for New Haven native Shay Taylor. As she finishes her doctoral studies at Howard University in Washington, D.C., she’s working as a sub-intern at Yale-New Haven Hospital — the same hospital where she worked as a janitor nearly a decade ago.
Taylor now works in anesthesia, caring for patients before their operations.
“It feels like home, for one,” Taylor said. “This is my stomping grounds.”
Not only does Taylor work at Yale-New Haven — she was born here, and not too long ago, she held another position as a janitor.
“I would go get my mop bucket, like I do every day,” Taylor recalled. “We were assigned a room that we had to clean.”
She started as a janitor at the age of 18, working at Yale New Haven for a few years before her mother fell ill. Taylor said her mother dealt with healthcare disparity, as what was initially misdiagnosed as mental illness turned out to be vocal cord issues.
“After doing research and seeing that so many people deal with this, I knew that I wanted to be in a position to help people who did not help my mom in that time,” Taylor said.
So, she got right to step one — figuring out what step one was.
“I didn’t have family members, I didn’t know anyone who was a doctor,” said Taylor. “So, I just went home and googled, ‘How do you become a doctor?'”
The google search was successful, to say the least. An undergrad and master’s degree later, Taylor is back where it all began, this time in scrubs. She still has to return to Howard University to finish her doctorate degree — but afterwards, she plans to come back to New Haven to continue serving her community.
“I was born here, I can probably go up to the room and see where I was born and where my Mom had me. So, full circle,” she said.