From Gang Member To Doctor. Sacramento Surgeon Proves It's Never Too Late To Follow Your Dreams

Luis Godoy was driven to pursue education after watching how hard his parents, migrant farmworkers from Mexico, worked to provide for Godoy and his siblings.



"I use my journey and my story as an example of, if you want something bad enough, you can make things happen," - Luis Godoy

A Sacramento doctor is proving that with a lot of hard work, determination, and perseverance, it’s never too late to follow your dreams.

Luis Godoy, who was once a gang member, is now one year away from finishing his residency as a heart and lung surgeon at the UC Davis School of Medicine.

Godoy was 6 years old when he and his family immigrated from Mexico to Northern California as farm workers.

“We were undocumented at the time,” Godoy explained. “I remember the journey – coming over through the mountains in Southern California – and I remember the first time that I saw a freeway. Where I come from, all you would see are cobblestone and gravel roads. It was like being on another planet.”

Godoy grew up in Suisun City. As a kid, he wasn't busy with regular after-school activities. When he got out of school, he and his siblings went to work with their parents out in the fields of Solano County.

“We learned how to cut fruit – peaches, nectarines. I vividly remember I used to hate doing that stuff, but I learned the strong work ethic that I picked up from my parents because that's what we had to do to survive at that time,” he said.

As a teenager, Godoy didn’t want to be known for being the son of farm workers.

“It’s not something that is really appealing to anyone, so I started to seek a different identity,” Godoy said. “I started to hang around with the wrong crowd and started to get into trouble – got involved with some local gangs at school.”

After getting expelled in high school, he started working as a mechanic, cook and did construction on the side.

"That's what I thought I was going to do for the rest of my life," Godoy said.

One morning, Godoy recalls waking up and hearing his parents get ready for work at 4 a.m.

“They were getting up to go work, not because they enjoyed doing it, but it was for me and my sisters," he said. "I sat there, and I reflected on that for quite some time, and that's when I just had this extreme sense of guilt.”

It was then he decided to enroll in an independent study program, in addition to his three jobs. He said he worked hard and eventually made it back to high school.

“It was during that time when I met my current wife, Rita. By the time I was a senior in high school, my oldest son was born," Godoy said.

In his mid-twenties, he went back to college to pursue a career in the medical field.

"One of the things that I have learned throughout my entire life span is to seek mentors and seek people who can help guide you along the way," he said.

One of those people is Dr. Francis Sousa, the Assistant Dean of Admissions and Student Development at the UC Davis School of Medicine.

"I met Luis about 10 years ago, and I knew he was going to be an outstanding physician," Sousa said. "Luis is a family man, he considers his patients to be family, too."

As a med student, Godoy would get up early to study, go to class, then come home to help his wife with their three kids.

"We have a lot of pictures where I’m at the table doing my homework with my son doing his kindergarten homework up to high school because that's how long it's taken," Godoy explained.

"It's one of the greatest feelings in life to accomplish something that you couldn't think you could accomplish," Godoy said. "I use my journey and my story as an example of, if you want something bad enough, you can make things happen."

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