Hillbrook alumna Gabriela Triant, class of 2011, is no stranger to asking questions about the world, being driven by her curiosity and her pursuit of excellence, and finding out what’s important to her and figuring out what to do about it.
When asked what drew her to apply to medical school, Gabriela Triant, class of 2011, says, “My most significant driving force toward medicine was witnessing a family member experience a serious medical condition about six years ago. I hope the work I do can relieve and support people in similar situations.” Gabriela’s ambition to study medicine didn’t start during her years at Hillbrook, but she learned the foundational skills and values that enabled her to notice what was important to her and take action to make a difference in the world.
A Hillbrook student from 3rd through 8th grade, Gabriela loved creating art, working on group projects, such as the 4th grade California missions models, and performing in the 8th grade musical, “Honk.” She also showed her school spirit and began her athletic career as a middle schooler, playing volleyball and basketball.
Many of her memories of Hillbrook projects will be familiar to current students, from making Claymation videos in Ken’s art class to learning Mandarin songs with Chen Lao Shi, from editing abstract photos in Mr. Stamos’s photography class to learning about surface tension at the campus creek with Mr. Ravizza’s science class.
Mr. Gingery in particular left a lasting impression on Gabriela. “I always felt encouraged by him as a student in his class,” she says. “He was always extremely enthusiastic and positive. I remember he used to say to have an ‘attitude of gratitude,’ which stuck with me.”
Gabriela felt well prepared for her time at Notre Dame High School in San Jose. “Hillbrook provided a solid foundation so I was able to begin high school in advanced and honors courses,” she says. In addition to a rigorous academic schedule, Gabriela took a risk and joined the track team at Notre Dame her sophomore year, where she competed as a varsity jumper, making State in her first season.
Specializing in triple jump and high jump, Gabriela took home the league triple jump title her junior and senior years and still holds the Notre Dame High School record in both events. Her pursuit of excellence in the sport paid off as she headed to college, scoring an athletic scholarship to University of California, Santa Barbara, and competing as a jumper at the Division I level for four years.
UCSB’s biology program encouraged Gabriela to follow her curiosity, offering a wide variety of courses in both the Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology Department and the Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology Department. The program’s strong emphasis in research drew her to her current job at Stanford Medicine focusing on clinical research in rheumatology, where she has learned how to conduct clinical studies from proposal to publication.
Gabriela is starting medical school this summer, and in addition to her MD plans to pursue a master’s in public health and certification in bilingual medical Spanish so she can treat Spanish-speaking patients, which is important to her because of her family’s Salvadoran heritage.
Gabriela has already been using her Spanish language skills in medical contexts, volunteering as a Spanish/English interpreter and screener at a free clinic in Downtown San Jose. When the pandemic started, this job, as well as her work at Stanford Medicine, changed drastically. In-person appointments were moved online, and skills such as physician-guided self-exams became more important. Through her clinical research, she was able to see first-hand how the pandemic was affecting people as she spoke to patients in a study focused on why some high-risk rheumatology patients were not getting flu vaccines. Her research shifted in the fall to focus on COVID-19 patients who were not hospitalized and if one could predict early on whether a patient would become seriously ill. Her work is already having an impact.
When asked her advice for current Hillbrook students, Gabriela responded that she hopes they “never doubt their potential, follow their curiosities, and make an effort to learn about peoples’ experiences different from their own.” And when students follow their curiosities and come to the end of their knowledge, “I encourage them to seek answers and not hesitate to ask questions!”
The Hillbrook Core Value to “Be Your Best” continues to inspire Gabriela today. “My definition of being my best captures several values of mine: acting with integrity, producing high-quality work, not comparing myself to another person, being self-aware and considerate, and embracing my unique interests and strengths.”
The Mission and Core Values that Gabriela experienced at Hillbrook will continue to serve her as she heads to medical school as she continues to follow her curiosity, take risks, be her best, and make a difference in the world.