Mayriam Robles Garcia
Item
-
Title
-
Mayriam Robles Garcia
-
Description
-
Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?
“My name is Mayriam Alejandra Robles Garcia. I am a physician who is currently a 2nd year MPH/MBA student at Bloomberg and Carey. I was born and raised in the U.S. until age 10 and then finished growing up in the Dominican Republic, where my parents are from. I am very proud of my ethnicity and culture and never deny where I am from because I think it makes me diverse, which is a good thing. I can very easily adapt to other cultures and respect people’s beliefs. I have a genuine interest in people and think difference is what brings change and unity. Professionally, I am passionate about patient safety, healthcare initiatives focused on minorities, and overall, reaching better practices in medicine. This project was important to me as inclusion is necessary, but for this to happen people must be outspoken to attract others to engage.”
Can you talk about your experiences as an immigrant or having an immigrant background?
“Yeah, I consider myself from the Dominican Republic. It was definitely a cultural shock when I came here. You might say, ‘Yeah, but you were in the U.S. for some time prior to coming to Hopkins,’ but Miami is very very Latino, which is what I’m used to. Everyone in each store speaks Spanish. So you feel like, you know, you’re in a Latin American country. Coming to Hopkins, it was really difficult because there are so many brilliant people here that you would feel intimidated. So at Bloomberg, there is almost no diversity in terms of Latinos. There are a lot of Indians, Asians, Americans, Africans, but a very small percentage of Latin-Americans. So yeah, it was difficult in a way. People were friendly, so I’m glad I haven’t encountered anything negative in that aspect. But I would say when you go out, there are some places, not necessarily here at Hopkins, where you feel like you don’t fit in...It’s really difficult, because when you come here and you feel that you’re discriminated or put aside, you can become super depressed. You don’t do well in school. You might even think of suicide or you just want to go home and say this isn’t the place for you. That’s why a lot of people drop out and change schools.”
- Mayriam Robles Garcia
Mayriam Robles Garcia