McALLEN — As fraternal twins, sisters Jacqueline and Juliana Falcon from Rio Grande City share much of their lives, from movie interests, to food, to music. Sometimes it’s as though they even share the same thoughts.
You can now add the medical field to that list of interests as the Falcon twins are now serving the community as doctors.
Both sisters, 29, are now family medicine physicians at South Texas Health System Clinics, where a new chapter in their lives begins.
Initially Jacqueline was interested in becoming a lawyer while Juliana’s mind was set on being a physician — at least that’s what they recall their mother telling them.
“My mom is the one that tells me ‘oh you always said that you wanted to be a doctor’ but from what I remember I was terrified of doctors,” Juliana said with a laugh, adding that she is really not sure where the career idea came from. “Everytime I had to get vaccines and stuff I would throw a fit.”
Although she may not have understood where their interest initially came from, Juliana said the spark really ignited in high school.
She added that she found doctors to be fascinating because their career is both challenging but fulfilling because they are helping patients get better.
High school was the career turning point for both sisters.
The La Grulla High School graduates recalled participating in organizations at school that were health care related including a health science course where they were able to go through rotations at different clinics.
“We both kind of liked more of the sciences — biology, anatomy, physiology, all that stuff — so we eventually both decided ‘hey you know what, medicine,’” Juliana said, noting that pre-med in college came next.
During her senior year, Juliana applied for the Bill Gates Scholarship which gave her a full ride as an undergrad. The two then attended the University of Texas at Austin.
They explained that they were part of the Joint Admission Medical Program, or JAMP, a state-funded program designed to assist students in economically underserved areas who are pursuing medical careers.
Although both were now interested in medicine they were still heading in different directions, with Jacqueline pursuing pediatrics and psychiatry while Juliana focused on family medicine.
During that time Juliana became a chemistry course assistant while Jacqueline focused on leadership roles and mentoring.
In fact, Jacqueline’s entire focus on her major shifted after both began as biology majors and then considered pediatrics, but she later opted for family relationships. Soshe switched her major to Human Development and Family Sciences and graduated with her bachelor’s.
She explained that it was a mix of her interests in psychology, family relationship and personal relationships.
During her senior year as an undergrad, Jacqueline worked for Dr. Zamora who had a family medicine center in Austin where she was able to shadow and interact with patients.
It was that experience that made Jacqueline want to switch her focus.
By the end of their senior year the sisters had been accepted to the same medical school, Texas Tech Health Science Center in Lubbock where they pursued family medicine.
Their first two years of medical school, which Juliana referred to as the academically focused years, were completed in Lubbock.
The last two years of medical school, which they referred to as clinical years, is when they conducted rotations at local facilities.
Their clinicals were completed at Texas Tech’s Permian Basin located in the Midland and Odessa area.
The twins returned to the Valley for their residency where they got accepted into the same program, the UTRGV-DHR Health program, where they completed their first two years of residency prior to the split between the two organizations.
They completed their residency in the Knapp program and graduated in June.
“We’re just lucky that we always ended up in the same place,” Jacqueline said, adding that the two are grateful to have faced the journey together since they are first generation college graduates.
They are also the first in their family to go into health care.
“We had no guidance, we had no mentor, so having another person kind of discover it, you know — fail and learn and do stuff together, at least you don’t feel alone,” Jacqueline said. “We also learn from each other.”
Although they’re twins, it’s not as though they share knowledge, however. They’ve instead helped each other learn along the way via sisterly support.
“If we could just combine our brains that would’ve been perfect,” Jacqueline said jokingly, debunking twin telepathy.
“I think a big portion of I think why we went through it all was because we were very encouraging of each other,” Juliana added. “It is tough to not want to give up at times but when you have that other person that’s like, ‘no, keep going, we’re both going to get through this,’ it makes it a lot easier.”
Jacqueline and Juliana are pleased that while they’re both serving as family medicine physicians, practicing in two different clinics gives them the opportunity to develop their own unique brands of care.
“I think it will be very cool to see how we both develop since we’re in different clinics. I’m assuming we’re going to learn different things in different ways and then being able to share that with each is going to be very interesting,” Juliana said.
Coming back to the Valley as physicians was always their goal after seeing the need for more access to health care.
“We are very loyal or very appreciative of the culture here in the Valley. I grew up here, my whole family is from here …,” Jaqueline said. “We just really wanted to give back to the community that raised us.”
There is also still much in store for the Falcons.
“One thing that we’ve always wanted to do and still want to do is have a clinic together,” Juliana said. “That was always our dream (and) still is our dream.”
And, of course, the two have proud parents rooting them on. “I think they’re more excited than we are,” Juliana said with a laugh.
Jaqueline concurred.
“They were also maybe I would say frustrated because they didn’t really know how to help us, obviously that’s not their fault, but they were always there in case we needed it,” Jacqueline said, adding that they always felt supported by their parents.
Juliana can be seen at STHS Family Medicine Edinburg Ten and Jaqueline at STHS Clinics Family Medicine McAllen.
