{"id":154840,"date":"2024-10-22T09:43:16","date_gmt":"2024-10-22T13:43:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=154840"},"modified":"2025-04-28T09:48:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T13:48:40","slug":"wright-state-medical-student-perseveres-to-pursue-lifelong-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2024\/10\/22\/wright-state-medical-student-perseveres-to-pursue-lifelong-dream\/","title":{"rendered":"Wright State medical student perseveres to pursue lifelong dream"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Cherissa Garcia, a three-time Wright State grad, never gave up on her dream of becoming a doctor and is now pursuing a medical degree at the Boonshoft School of Medicine. (Photo by Kris Sproles)<\/p><\/div>\n

Imagine visiting a college to pursue your career dreams and being told by one of its professors that another institution would be a better fit. Even though you are not familiar with this university, you decide to immediately register and attend classes there the very next day.<\/p>\n

This is how Cherissa Garcia arrived at Wright State University.<\/p>\n

Her father had retired from the Air Force in 2004 and accepted a civilian job at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Garcia, who had just graduated from high school in Cheyenne, Wyoming, decided to follow her parents to Dayton to attend college and pursue her lifelong goal of being a doctor.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mother and I visited one of the community colleges in the area. We were talking to one of the professors and I shared my career goals. He subsequently advised me to attend Wright State,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cWe had just moved to Ohio right before the fall semester began, and I did not know anything about Wright State. But I heeded the professor\u2019s advice, registered and started attending classes the very next day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Fairborn resident earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in Spanish in 2009 and a master\u2019s degree in public health<\/a> in 2016 and a master\u2019s degree in anatomy<\/a> in 2024 from Wright State University. She is now a first-year medical student at Wright State\u2019s Boonshoft School of Medicine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Her aspirations to become a doctor date to kindergarten.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor some reason during this time in my life, it seemed we were at the doctor\u2019s office quite often \u2013 whether the appointment was for my mother, father or brother,\u201d she said. \u201cOur doctors were always so accommodating and pleasant. So, I had this idea that I wanted to be a doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n

But her pursuit has encountered some obstacles. Garcia struggled with confidence as challenging pre-med courses made her reconsider her career choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lost faith in myself because I was struggling and figured if I was meant to do this, it should not be this hard. In retrospect, which was an immature perspective,\u201d she said. \u201cMy intention was to take a break from school for a year or two. It ended up being another 10 years before I entered medical school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garcia left the country to work as an English instructor in the Dominican Republic. Two years later, she returned to the United States and enrolled in Wright State\u2019s Master of Public Health program.<\/p>\n

Medicine continued to intrigue Garcia while she worked as a case manager for Premier Health\u2019s Breast and Cervical Cancer Project, which offered free breast and cervical cancer screenings to uninsured and low-income women.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were the liaison between the women, physician and testing facilities,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cI was working in the field and had been successful in the master\u2019s program. Also, I was maturing and had learned how to apply my skills later. It was at this point that I decided to give medicine another try. I had tried another path, but medicine was drawing me back in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garcia decided to re-enroll in each of her pre-med courses. Her first two classes were physics and chemistry. She performed well, which boosted her confidence.<\/p>\n

Garcia left her job to become a full-time student at Wright State and rekindle her dreams of becoming a doctor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a turning point for me and got me back on the path of being a doctor,\u201d she said. \u201cWright State is my home and people here have always been supportive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garcia\u2019s relationship with Wright State runs deep. Her bonus daughter, Ashley, is pursuing a bachelor\u2019s degree in public health<\/a> at Wright State.<\/p>\n

Garcia credits her extracurricular involvement, particularly in the Minority Association of Pre-Med Students, for mentorship and guidance and the support and resources it affords medical students who are members of underrepresented and underprivileged populations. It also led to her first mission trip to the Dominican Republic.<\/p>\n

Garcia, who is of Afro-American heritage, is hopeful to see more diversity in the medical profession. She is from a family of immigrants, as her mother is from Trinidad. Garcia also met her husband during her time in the Dominican Republic and helped him navigate the health system when he moved to the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy ideal situation is to work globally and have some influence internationally,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cI do not know what that looks like yet, but that is my goal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cherissa Garcia, a three-time Wright State grad, never gave up on her dream of becoming a doctor and is now pursuing a medical degree at the Boonshoft School of Medicine. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":154851,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,733,4309,2116,2060,747,2130,2149,2016,715,746,4855,4298,2061],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-alumni","category-alumni-association","category-anatomy","category-graduate","category-liberal-arts","category-public-health","category-medical-students","category-medicine","category-news","category-science-mathematics","category-social-sciences-and-international-studies","category-student-profile","category-undergraduate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154840"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":154860,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154840\/revisions\/154860"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}