Shay Taylor once cleaned patient rooms and offices in a hospital. Next month, after graduating from the Howard University College of Medicine, she’ll return to that same hospital as a doctor.

In recent weeks, the Howard University medical student has been flooded with interview requests from major outlets including CNN, ABC, and  The Washington Post. Her story has even captured global attention, with news programs from Brazil and Spain reaching out.

“It’s been actually insane,” Taylor said. “I can’t believe that not only our country loves the story, but kind of the whole world is receiving my story and they love it.”

The wave of media attention began last October when The Jennifer Hudson Show featured Taylor. Hudson’s team reached out after seeing the viral post, giving Taylor her first major platform.

“That was just amazing,” Taylor recalled. “I didn’t know my story was going to reach her eyes at all.”

Taylor, originally from New Haven, Connecticut, grew up rarely seeing Black doctors. She worked at Yale New Haven Hospital as a janitor for 10 years — cleaning patient rooms, bathrooms, and even the office of the hospital’s CEO. When her mother fell ill with a vocal cord dysfunction that doctors initially dismissed as mental illness, Taylor, then at Southern Connecticut State University, sought help from the CEO directly. 

With the intervention, doctors finally diagnosed her mother’s condition. Taylor said that moment cemented her interest in medicine and her personal mission: to advocate for Black patients who are too often overlooked. 

But the struggle, she said, was real, especially growing up in an environment where becoming a doctor wasn't a dream many Black people made into reality. 

“I grew up with my mom,” Taylor said. “She was a single mom at the time and my two brothers. I never grew up thinking I wanted to be a doctor. I didn't even know this was a thing. We don't see too many Black doctors in Connecticut."