Samo student clears path to her future

It's hard for high school students to know what they want to be at the age of 18 when curious adults ask Natalia Garbán (’16) what profession she wants to pursue, her answer is certain.  She tells them she wants to be an obstetrician gynecologist (OBGYN).An OBGYN is a physician who both delivers babies and treats diseases of the female reproductive organs.Garbán was inspired to become an OBGYN after reading “Half the Sky” by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. The book tells the story of a Somalian doctor named Edna Adan. Adan gives patients free surgeries and then teaches them medical procedures and hires them to work for her.“I just love moms,” Garbán said. “They are so inspirational, so I want to be a part of the  group of people that help mothers all over the world."For a passion and love for helping others, she will be pursuing international public health, specifically maternal and child health at the University of California Berkeley."I want to learn how to help whole populations of women and girls through Public Health, but to also be able to help the individual female through medicine and being an OBGYN," Garbán said. "I've known that I have wanted to do this for most of my time in high school and all of my friends have asked me if I will deliver their babies in the future, I say yes."According to Garbán, she wants to go to medical school and after three years of undergraduate schooling which would allow her an extra year to focus on an internship, a job, or start medical school early.Garbán has a cousin who is an OBGYN and family who went to medical school so she has a general idea about the medical field and what it takes to become a doctor.“I am currently in the process of contacting different people that I have met who are either Midwives, D.O. doctors, or Nurse Practitioners who assist with obstetrics and gynecologists to shadow one over the summer and see some births and surgeries,” Garbán said.