RB’s McKinney plans healthcare career

Editor’s Note: Franklin’s Future is a regular feature spotlighting a high school senior in Franklin County and what they have planned for life after graduation.

The healthcare field is one of the leaders as far as making high salaries and having multiple specialty career paths from which to choose.

But there are pros and cons to everything and while making lots of money is one of the positives for the medical profession, one of the negatives for some specialties in the field is that it takes years for studies to be completed.

Grant McKinney

Red Bay senior Grant McKinney, 18, is pretty confident about getting somewhere in the healthcare field even if it takes him forever.

He said he is looking to be in college for eight years with four more years added on of residency for what he wants to do as a career.

“My plans are to go to the University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB) to pursue a career as a family practice physician,” he said. “The health classes here (Red Bay High School) have played a part in my decision to go into the health field, along with some unofficial job shadowing of local physicians. Hopefully I’ll get my degree there, get into medical school there and receive my physician license.” 

McKinney said his biggest fear is not getting into medical school. If it doesn’t go as expected he said the back-up plan is to either take on the physical therapy field or specialize in teeth as a dentist.

McKinney said he would love to come back after all those years of hitting the books and settle down in Franklin County.

“I would honestly enjoy coming back to Red Bay and open up my own practice,” he said. “This is where I grew up, I’ve grown to love this place and this is just where I would like to be.”

McKinney has been stocking shelves and bagging groceries for two years at the Piggly Wiggly in Red Bay and says he is just making a few extra bucks until he makes his move out of his family home and into a dorm down south after graduation.

McKinney said his ultimate dream is to open a practice in Red Bay, but live out in the country because city living is just not for him.

“I definitely see myself living on the out-out skirts of town,” he said. “I like my space.”

Even though McKinney enjoys space, he believes marriage could come into the picture halfway through his collegiate career and he hopes that special someone would share the same interests of living out in the country close to Red Bay.

Some of the things McKinney is going to miss at RBHS is hanging with friends and going to Tupelo, Miss. to watch movies.

“There have been a lot of great memories here,” he said.

The one thing people might not know about McKinney is that he likes to sing in the car while driving.

“Yeah I admit it,” he said. “But it’s not that big of a deal. There are lots of people who do the same thing.”

McKinney said if he could change anything about the school he would definitely add some more extracurricular activities like other bigger schools have because some of those activities would probably look good on a resume.

A perfect day for McKinney would be going down to Tuscaloosa and tailgating with friends and family.

“I think it would make it even more awesome if Nick Saban just sat down at our tailgate and spoke to us for awhile, that would be a pretty cool day,” he said.

Some other things McKinney sees himself doing one day is traveling to all 50 states and taking a European tour.

McKinney has been making his final trips down the halls at RBHS, but said his lifelong goal will remain the same for the rest of his life.

“I just want to have an impact on others and in the community where I end up, that is really the one thing I truly would like to see happen in the future,” he said.