This story is an excerpt from a larger piece in CSUN Today. Among the five students featured in the full article, Jessica Barajas represents Health and Human Development. Meet students from across the CSUN campus by reading the full story in CSUN Today.
It took a lot of hard work, late nights in the library, mastering of complicated schedules, seemingly endless papers and projects, and the understanding and support of loved ones. The payoff begins this weekend with California State University, Northridge’s 2017 commencement.
Nearly 11,500 CSUN students have been invited to walk across the stage in front of the Delmar T. Oviatt Library in the heart of the university campus and receive congratulations from university leaders as they celebrate their graduation to the cheers of thousands of family members, friends and fellow classmates. (CSUN’s 2017 commencement ceremonies can be watch live online at www.youtube.com/CalStateNorthridge.)
Some of the students are the first in their families to get a college education. Others veered from paths initially laid out by their parents and instead are inspired by their own dreams. Still other students are completing a journey started years earlier, but interrupted by jobs and familial obligations.
From the College of Health and Human Development, meet Jessica Barajas, B.S. Health Administration:
CSUN seemed like a natural college choice for Jessica Barajas, 22, of Tujunga. Her cousins had attended the university and raved about their experience and the education they got. With plans to go on to medical school after her undergraduate studies, she felt the price couldn’t be beat.
“It seemed perfect,” Barajas said.
Wavering between kinesiology and biology, Barajas settled on biology, saying it fit better with her medical school goals. “I had dreams of becoming an optometrist, maybe an eye surgeon,” she said.
Her plans changed after a visit to a retina specialist in the middle of her freshman year. Barajas, who had been having problems with her eyesight for a couple of years, was convinced by her older sister, who also was having problems, to visit a specialist to find out what was wrong.
“We have Stargardt disease, a form of macular degeneration, which means that our vision will continue to get progressively worse and it could mean complete vision loss,” she said.
Barajas said her first thoughts turned to her academics, and her dream of becoming an optometrist. Concerned about her future, she talked to faculty members and the staff in CSUN’s Disability Resources and Educational Services, which offers support to students with disabilities. They pointed out that her failing eyesight may preclude her from becoming an eye surgeon, but it did not prevent her from a career in health care.
“What I loved is that when I felt most vulnerable, when I needed help the most, [people at CSUN] were there for me,” Barajas said.
Encouraged, Barajas switched her major to health administration and discovered a new passion. An internship shadowing the chief medical officer at Providence Hospital this year cemented her decision.
“I never realized how much collaboration there was in health administration, how much they work with the doctors and the patients,” she said. “The person I am shadowing probably knows the names of more people than I have known in my entire life.”
Her new major also has forced her out of her shell. “I am kind of a shy person,” she said, “but this field is very collaborative, and working with my classmates has made me more social.”
Barajas said she plans to work in health care upon graduation, and then go to graduate school.
“I want to get a little real-world experience under my belt before going on to get my master’s degrees in public health and health administration,” she said, adding that she would eventually like to earn a doctorate and return to the classroom as a university professor.
Barajas will take part in the College of Health and Human Development commencement ceremony at 8 a.m. on Saturday, May 20.
This story is an excerpt from a larger piece in CSUN Today. Among the five students featured in the full article, Jessica Barajas represents Health and Human Development. Meet students from across the CSUN campus by reading the full story in CSUN Today.
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Carmen Ramos Chandler/CSUN Today