Photos: Madame president
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JUNE 30, 2014, ATLANTA Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice welcomes students into the Morehouse School of Medicine Class of 2018, Monday, June 30, 2014. Unlike most physicians who nurture childhood dreams of becoming doctors, Valerie Montgomery Rice wanted to become a chemical engineer. Then one day she looked in the mirror and realized she was "way too cute" to be an engineer. Doctoring was more suited for her out-going personality. That may have been true for a time but as it turns out academics was her true love. In September Rice will officially become the nations' first African-American woman to be named president of an independent medical school and the one of only three women in the country to hold that position. KENT D. JOHNSON/KDJOHNSON@AJC.COM