Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn has been considered a last choice for medical school graduates seeking post-graduate residency training. It was Dr. Calderón’s first choice; he chose the war on poverty. Despite the intense rigors and stress of residency training in an underfunded, understaffed, and undersupplied medical center during the HIV/AIDS epidemic, he successfully passed the last of three national board examinations in medicine and was conferred licensure as a Diplomate of the National Board of Medical Examiners.