In 2017, Ncumisa Jilata became Africa’s youngest neurosurgeon at 29-years-old, after completing a five-year fellowship at the University of Pretoria located in South Africa. Dr. Jilata’s medical journey began in 2003 when she was in the 11th grade. Her rigorous path included a packed course schedule of condensing three years of biology into just one year. “I was already in Grade 11 when I decided I want to be a doctor, but at the time I wasn’t doing biology, so when I got to matric I had to do three years of biology in one year, in addition to the subjects I had already selected from Grade 10,” she told Dispatch Live. During her time in high school, Dr. Jilata developed a fascination with the brain and the neuron, which would ultimately lead her to set her sights on becoming a neurosurgeon. “During that period I discovered the concept of a neuron, which is amazing, and the fact that society as a whole is influenced and controlled solely by the existence of this structure, intrigued...