{"id":806,"date":"2020-10-19T13:38:48","date_gmt":"2020-10-19T17:38:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/magazine\/?p=806"},"modified":"2020-10-27T17:48:14","modified_gmt":"2020-10-27T21:48:14","slug":"on-call-and-on-air","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/magazine\/on-call-and-on-air\/","title":{"rendered":"On Call and On-Air"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nigerian native Dr. Saju Mathew, a UTC product, is a medical analyst for CNN Headline News and a practicing physician in Atlanta.<\/em> <\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>
\n

Dr. Saju Mathew recognizes that his work life is a tad chaotic. \u201cIt\u2019s tough to do primary care in the midst of a pandemic, hospital work and TV at the same time,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd with breaking news, I have to be ready to go on-air whenever they need me and be prepared to talk about anything.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mathew, a\u00a0primary care physician\u00a0and\u00a0public health specialist\u00a0who frequently appears on CNN and\u00a0HLN (Headline News)\u00a0as a\u00a0medical analyst,\u00a0is accustomed to\u00a0the\u00a0constant juggling.\u00a0It is\u00a0nothing like the stress\u00a0he faced\u00a0of having\u00a0to ace American history\u00a0during his freshman year at the\u00a0University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Susan Hendricks and Saju Mathew on the HLN set.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Born in Nigeria to parents of East Indian descent, Mathew knew nothing about American history but still he dreamed of coming to the United States for college. As a teenager, he visited Chattanooga on summer vacation to holiday with his extended family. He asked to see UTC, where his uncle, P.K. Geevarghese, was an anthropology professor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mathew immediately fell in love with the campus. While his grades were good enough to get accepted into the University, there were no price breaks as an international student. All scholarships at the time required recipients to be American citizens. Two of his Chattanooga cousins were in the Brock Scholars program at UTC, and Mathew recalls thinking, \u201cIf my cousins can get in, why can\u2019t I? I decided I would call the office directly and find out.\u201d In doing so, he landed the opportunity to state his case to Robert Fulton, at that time the head of the University Honors program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI will never forget that meeting with Dr. Fulton,\u201d Mathew says. \u201cHe reminded me of a young Prince Charles, a well-dressed man with a New Hampshire accent. I remember him telling me, \u2018Saju, I see how eager you are. You have done really well, but we\u2019re going to have some requirements. You are going to have to make all As in that first semester. We get to pick the courses. If you make all As, we will consider\u2014and the word is consider\u2014giving you a Brock Scholarship.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The classes selected for Mathew were chemistry, physics, biology, calculus and \u201cthe course that I had the most nightmares about, American history. I knew nothing about American history coming from Africa,\u201d says Mathew, who grew up under the British system in Nigeria. \u201cI remember camping out in front of my history professor\u2019s office after class so I could ask him questions about U.S. Grant and James Madison and the Civil War. That course gave me heart palpitations.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The beauty of a doctor is to be able to take these hard medical terminologies and explain them to somebody who doesn\u2019t have a science background. <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Mathew did make all As and became the first international student to earn a Brock Scholarship. \u201cIt was life-changing, and not to mention, I saved a lot of money for my dad,\u201d he says. In having to take the initial science-based curriculum toward a medical career, he also took steps toward a future role in reporting by joining the Student Echo<\/em> newspaper as a staff writer. \u201cI always wanted to be a journalist,\u201d says Mathew, who graduated magna cum laude from UTC in 1990. \u201cWhen I was a young boy in Nigeria, I would hold a stick like it was a microphone and pretend that I was reporting live from some crazy place about some disaster. It was always inside of me.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward to 2020, and Mathew, whose medical degree is from Morehouse School of Medicine and he holds a master\u2019s from Emory Rollins School of Public Health, today finds himself plying his medical trade at Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta. He began his fledgling on-air career less than two years ago, and thanks to COVID 19, has now been making multiple weekly television appearances. An acquaintance of his who works in television got him started in the business. Mathew recollects being told, \u201cYou will be a natural on TV. I like the way you explain things to me in the room. The beauty of a doctor is to be able to take these hard medical terminologies and explain them to somebody who doesn\u2019t have a science background. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Says Mathew, \u201cBefore I knew it, I got a position as an on-air medical analyst, and here I am.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nigerian native Dr. Saju Mathew, a UTC product, is a medical analyst for CNN Headline News and a…\n","protected":false},"author":1493,"featured_media":1147,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[101011,115746],"tags":[101025,24370],"coauthors":[100990],"class_list":{"0":"post-806","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fall-2020-edition","8":"category-feature","9":"tag-bottom","10":"tag-overflow","11":"cs-entry","12":"cs-video-wrap"},"yoast_head":"\nOn Call and On-Air - UTC Magazine Archive: Jul 2007 - Oct 2025<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On Call and On-Air - 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