Miseker Abate walks in a legacy of godliness and care for others that was embodied in her father’s life. For him, 这意味着在他们的祖国埃塞俄比亚成为神学教授, and then at Concordia Irvine. 对米塞克来说，这条道路是在医学领域. She recently earned her medical degree from UC Irvine and a master’s degree in public health from Harvard University. 她现在前往康奈尔大学进行外科实习.
The goal, she says, 是用她所得到的一切来帮助那些无法获得医疗服务的人, particularly in Africa.
米塞克说:“我觉得自己一直在探索. “我问上帝的问题是，‘我的目的是什么?’ I knew I was blessed, 享有特权，拥有很多人都希望拥有的机会, 我需要找到一种方法来最大限度地回报我所获得的机会.”
The family’s journey to Concordia University Irvine began with her father’s spiritual awakening when he was in high school, which shocked many of his relatives. Eshetu Abate was a brilliant student and scored so high on academic tests that Ethiopia’s emperor, Haile Selassie, 访问了他的学校(位于亚的斯亚贝巴以南7小时车程的农村地区), the capital city) and awarded him a gold watch. But rather than train for leadership in the communist Derg regime which later governed the country, Miseker’s father pursued theological study and was taken under the wing of Norwegian missionaries who gave him a scholarship to attend Mekane Yesus Seminary in Addis. 1988年，他在圣何塞的康考迪亚神学院获得博士学位. Louis.
“A lot of people told him to stay in the U.S. because of the upheaval of the Derg regime, 但他回到了亚的斯亚贝巴的神学院当教授, then as the dean,” Miseker says.
That’s why I began considering mission work. 我不能像这里一切正常一样继续下去. 我知道我需要好好利用我得到的机会.
米塞克在1991年德格政权被推翻两周后出生在亚的斯亚贝巴.
七岁时，她的父亲在教堂教书，全家搬到挪威住了两年
throughout Scandinavia and her mother, Amarech, 继续在教会和社会中教导和倡导赋予妇女权力. When they moved back to Ethiopia, the sharp differences between first-world and third-world conditions caught young Miseker’s attention.
“Norway is very different than Addis, 这让我很震惊，一个问题一直萦绕在我的脑海里,” she says. “我想了解为什么存在这种差异, 但当时我还太年轻，无法深入研究这个问题，也没有纠结太多. Those questions laid dormant for a while. I thought my life would continue in Ethiopia.”
几年后，这家人永久搬到了尔湾. 阿巴特成为了欧文康考迪亚大学的神学教授. 对米塞克来说，这种转变极其艰难.
“来到这里开始新生活，感觉像是一种损失，”她回忆道. “Leaving everything you knew, 你开始想念你的家人，然后你突然意识到这是永远. I kept asking, ‘Why is this my life?’”
She experienced something akin to survivor’s guilt for having so many opportunities while many in Ethiopia did not.
“这就是我开始考虑传教工作的原因，”她说. “I wanted to be a theologian like my dad. 我不能像这里一切正常一样继续下去. 我知道我需要好好利用我得到的机会. People were welcoming in Irvine, and I had friends, but it was never like this was my life. 当你在一个不同的地方长大，你不能忽视它.”
Her father established two churches, in Long Beach and Los Angeles, 同时也在欧文的康考迪亚大学任教. Her mother, who earned a master of philosophy in religious studies and a bachelor of arts in theology, 曾在亚的斯亚贝巴神学院担任妇女研究教授. She remained deeply involved in local ministry and worked to create leadership opportunities for young women in the church and society in Ethiopia, while advocating against harmful cultural traditions like early marriage and labor inequality.
Concordia professors Dr. Michael Young, Dr. Ken Ebel and Dr. 约翰·肯尼对我所做的一切都有帮助.
米塞克在康考迪亚大学读本科的时候, cancer began stealing her father’s life away and she was was faced with the choice of dropping classes to be with him, 或者继续学习，错过了生命中最后的时刻.
She sought counsel from Dr. John Kenney, her analytical chemistry professor.
“We talked and prayed together, 我说有很多学期你可以重修这门课, 但只有这一次，你可以留在你父亲的床边,” Dr. Kenney remembers. 我提醒她，我们做事的顺序是上帝优先, then our family, then our professional life, which at her stage was school. I said, ‘This is a sacred Incomplete. You’re doing it for all the right reasons. It’s a higher call than the class. Go be at your father’s bedside. After that, come back and finish the class.’”
Miseker did just that, 休学一学期和父亲一起走过父亲生命的最后阶段.
“Concordia was like family,” Miseker says. “这太重要了，我很感激康科迪亚家族. It was a really good community. Pastor Anderson, Dr. 玛丽·斯科特和他们都很支持我.”
Dr. Kenney says Dr. Abate was “an incredible human being.”
“他是一个圣洁的人，这是我能说的最好的说法，”肯尼说. “He radiated the love of God to everyone around him and had a way of saying your name in a way that honored you. 米塞克也有同样的超自然光芒. She is absolutely excellent by any standard, 但她的决定性特征是她的超自然能力, godly radiance that emanates from her.”
一位住院医师面试官问我最自豪的是什么, 我回答是康考迪亚欧文分校，因为它造就了今天的我, the go-getter.
Miseker had already decided to take her father’s recommendation to pursue medicine instead of theology, which he believed would allow her to have a practical impact while ministering the word of God. Concordia professors Dr. Michael Young, Dr. Ken Ebel and Dr. 约翰·肯尼迪“对我所做的一切都很有帮助，”她说. “我非常感谢菲律宾十大网赌网站的所有教授.
I got a lot of research opportunities and people to mentor me and believe in me when I mentioned my big dreams. It made me continue to strive and never settle.”
从菲律宾十大网赌网站毕业拿到学位后 biology and a minor in chemistry, Miseker returned to her father’s hometown in Ethiopia for six months to volunteer at the Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons.
“我已经决定要吃药了，我正在想办法回去帮助别人, in what capacity,” Miseker says. “I very much enjoyed doing that. I lived in one of my aunt’s old homes, 走回那个村庄，你会看到很多流浪儿童. 每次我经过，他们都知道我不是本地人，就跟着我. 有时我带他们去餐馆吃饭. There were so many people with broken limbs, 那些真正需要医疗保健却得不到的人.”
We talked and prayed together, 我说有很多学期你可以重修这门课, 但只有这一次，你可以留在你父亲的床边.
Dr. Kenney wrote a letter of recommendation for her medical school application and she received a full-tuition scholarship to UC Irvine medical school. In her first year, 她计划让十个UCI医学院的学生去埃塞俄比亚做超声波检查. They raised $30,000, bought two ultrasound machines, held a feeding event for 300 children with a local restaurant and volunteered at a hospital to train 200 medical students in ultrasound use over six weeks.
Back at medical school, 米塞克轮岗接受创伤外科培训, heart surgery, minimally invasive surgery using robots, and much more. After three years she took one year off to earn a master’s degree in public health from Harvard on a presidential scholarship. 她拒绝了约翰霍普金斯大学和耶鲁大学类似项目的邀请.
“That was the best year ever, the pinnacle of meeting every person I wanted to work with,” she says. “All my colleagues had very big dreams. Sometimes you talk about things you want to change in this world and people look at you like, ‘You can’t do that.这一次，每当我提出一个想法，每个人都争先恐后地去实现它.”
哈佛大学证实了她想从事全球外科手术的愿望, and she enjoyed the opportunity to work with the ministries of health in Ethiopia and Rwanda on curriculum development for new medical schools. 她回到UCI完成她的医学学位，并邀请了Dr. 邀请她在教堂举行的毕业典礼上讲话.
当面试外科住院医师项目时, 米塞克总是带着一些特别的东西:她的康科迪亚文件夹.
一位住院医师面试官问我最自豪的是什么, 我回答是康考迪亚欧文分校，因为它造就了今天的我, the go-getter,” Miseker says. "让我成功的一切都是因为协和女神.”
She still carries her Concordia folder to every important meeting “because it reminds me of the start,” she says. “And it keeps everything together.”
She chose to do her residency at Cornell University because of its focus on global surgery, where surgeons work to increase access to safe and affordable surgical care for people in developing nations.
I think you’re going to see Miseker make a major impact in both medicine and Christian spirituality.
“It’s about creating a systematized plan for how to expand surgical services in these countries,” Miseker says. “I want to utilize my master’s of public health in the global surgery realm and continue to practice in the operating room, specializing in organ
transplant surgery.”
发展中国家无法获得医疗服务，并不是因为没有有能力的人, but because of lack of opportunities, among other reasons.
米塞克说:“作为埃塞俄比亚裔美国人，我有着独特的地位. “我觉得有了适当的努力和祈祷, I can help bridge the gap between the numerous talented and creative people overseas and those who want to give them opportunities.
In developing countries there are not a lot of opportunities even for the smartest or those who work incredibly hard. I want to find ways to make that better.”
In her leisure time, Miseker has completed two full marathons and taught kick-boxing classes at a local fitness center during med school. Her mother works at Concordia Irvine in administrative services and has continued to travel the world to lead workshops and conferences on theology, women’s empowerment in Africa, and how Lutherans can better
engage people within African cultures. At home, she has served as director of the Board of Elders and Deaconess at the Ethiopian Lutheran Church Mekane Yesus.
米塞克说:“没有妈妈，我哪儿也去不了。. “She’s the strongest human I know. She is and has been our rock.”
米塞克的一个弟弟去了斯坦福大学，在Facebook做程序员. The other is entering high school.
After Cornell, Miseker hopes to spend time at the World Health Organization in Geneva to learn more about expanding surgical access in African countries. 她父亲的榜样继续激励着她克服挑战.
“I think you’re going to see Miseker make a major impact in both medicine and Christian spirituality,” says Kenney. “我觉得她并没有完全意识到自己有多特别. 她是那种可以扭转整个国家局势的人, 或者彻底改变非洲的医疗保健和精神护理.”