Working toward medical school to help heal others mentally, physically

Beija Robbins has been the only Mt. Hood student to be nominated by three separate individuals for The Advocate’s profile of the month this school year.

Robbins will graduate with two degrees — an Associate of Science and Art — before transferring to Washington State University Vancouver with a full-ride tuition scholarship.

Her end goal is to go to medical school, she said, so she will spend the next two years studying neuroscience.

“Even without the scholarship, Washington State is where I want to be,” she said. “I still can’t believe I won the scholarship.”

Beyond earning a bachelor’s degree, she has looked into attending either the University of Washington or Oregon Health and Science University for medical school, but said, “If I get into any medical school, I will be so happy.

“I know I want to be a doctor and I really want to focus on internal medicine,” she said. “I’m really interested in addictions like alcohol and substance abuse and how that effects the brain. I’m also super interested in mental diseases that aren’t necessarily understood — like schizophrenia.”

With the fast-changing medical field, Robbins isn’t sure what her career will look like.

“I’ve never met a doctor who’s doing exactly what I want to do. It’ll be interesting to see six years from now what positions are available,” she said.

She decided to avoid the common (for hopeful medical students) biology major after visiting WSUV and meeting neuroscience faculty members and “seeing just the very basics of neuroscience… I’m going to be learning so much more,” she said. “I was completely fascinated and drawn in. This is for me.”

Her fascination with internal medicine is personal. “Both my parents struggle with mental health,” she said. Her grandparents adopted her at a young age, but more as more of a “supplemental thing,” she said, as her parents are still present. She currently lives with her aunt and said, “Without my family,  I don’t know if I could be here.”

Robbins is well-connected to MHCC.

She is a SOAR (Student Outreach and Recruitment) leader responsible for giving tours and contacting perspective students.

“I’ve always been active in student government and student leadership in high school. I saw how beneficial it was for me in high school,” she said. So, she wanted to continue being engaged at Mt. Hood. She found out about SOAR too late last school year to participate, but has been heavily involved this year.

“Being involved has made this year so much better,” she said – “getting to know people, networking, growing as a leader, and being exposed to opportunities.”

She noted that without being involved in SOAR, she would not have known about the scholarship at WSUV she received.

One SOAR adviser, Roxanne James proofread about 12 drafts before Robbins submitted her scholarship application. Her SOAR advisers are “amazing,” she said.

As part of SOAR, Robbins has spent Spring Term working in the Orientation Center. Her MHCC advisers approached her about the opportunity, and “the more I got over there and started learning who are the people I’m going to be helping and what I was doing, I fell more in love with the job,” she said.

“I see all these people who have these dreams, and they want to do whatever it takes to get there. They just don’t have the tools. It’s a really great feeling knowing I get to help them accomplish their dreams. Maybe it’s only a small portion… but it’s still incredible,” she said.

With SOAR, the Orientation Center, classes and work outside of MHCC, Robbins said sometimes her calendar on her phone has to tell her where to go.

She also works as a marketing specialist for Imperial Brown, a company that manufactures walk-in coolers. Her job happened by chance, she said. Robbins was visiting a friend who works at the company when the CEO approached. She said they had a casual conversation, and now she has spent two years working for the company.

She attributes her success, all around, to the people who have supported her throughout her journey. “Everyone is amazing in my life,” she said.