(July 22, 2014)

Alumna receives Ascension Delgado Smith Excellence Award

SHREVEPORT, LA — Centenary alumna Taylor Teague '10 was recently awarded the Ascension Delgado Smith Excellence Award while attending LSU Health Shreveport School of Medicine. The annual award of $1,000 is given to a senior medical student in the top half of the class who is widely recognized for their display of compassion to patients and fellow students and demonstration of integrity and ethics in their scholastic and personal endeavors.

"I consider this award a great accomplishment," said Teague. "This award means that I am on the right track to becoming not only the doctor I want to be, but more importantly, the type of person I want to be. For the committee to see the attributes of Ascension Delgado Smith in me is an honor. I actually keep the award next to a plaque of the physician's oath as a reminder that I should strive to exemplify her attributes on a daily basis with my patients and colleagues."

Teague, who was unaware she had been nominated, was surprised when her name was called as recipient of the award during a presentation. Early in her medical school career, Teague determined she wanted to be a doctor who placed emphasis on an open and honest patient-doctor relationship, and has demonstrated a high degree of integrity throughout her time at Louisiana State University-Health Shreveport.

The Louisiana native started her medical school journey as a biology major and chemistry minor at Centenary.

"I can say without a doubt that Centenary did a great job at preparing me for medical school," said Teague. "Centenary provided rigorous classes with phenomenal professors, who not only excelled at teaching students the fundamentals of science but who were also passionate about teaching and their subject matter. I cannot put enough emphasis on how awesome my professors were at Centenary—without them, I would not be where I am today."

In April, Teague matched to Baylor College of Medicine Medical Center in Houston, Texas for Internal Medicine.

The Ascension Delgado Smith Excellence Award was established by Smith in 2008. She is a native of Seville, Spain and taught Spanish and biology in two Shreveport high schools before she was selected as the founding principal of Caddo Magnet High School, a position that she held for 20 years. At the time the award was established, Smith served on the LSU Health Sciences Foundation Board of Directors, the Advisory Board of the Feist Weiller Cancer Center, the Shreve Memorial Library Board of Trustees, and as an extremely active member of St. Joseph's Catholic Church. The criteria for this award is designed to mirror the persona of Ascension Delgado Smith who was widely known as an innovative and accomplished educator, a true community servant, and a deeply spiritual individual.