Ive Avila is the product of immigrants from Mexico, raised with her three siblings in Chicago. Her mother was a janitor at a school and her father worked in construction.
She studied molecular biology — simply typing that is a dizzying task — from Loyola University Chicago, and an MBA from Southern New Hampshire University.
On Saturday, the 32-year-old will be part of the first graduating class of the Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine at TCU, a groundbreaking moment for all involved, including the school perched on University Drive, celebrating 150 years in 2023.
“We are immensely proud of these young doctors. They will forever be a part of TCU’s 150th,” said Chancellor Victor J. Boschini Jr. “This is a day that has been years in the making, and it is only fitting that this special class would be a part of such a celebratory moment in the life of our university.”
The 52 graduates, who all placed in residency programs, will now go out into the world and begin molding the reputation that plays such a critical role ultimately in the formation of the medical school.
Avila is going to serve an OB/GYN four-year residency at Baylor Scott and White in Temple.
“I think it's a huge responsibility, honestly,” Avila says, “Going on to the real world, going into our residency programs as MDs, I think that's an even bigger responsibility because now programs are seeing the product of the school essentially, and, hopefully, we can show them what we've learned throughout the four years, and how our LIC [Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship] program has, I think, prepared us more so than other traditional programs, at least when it comes to patient interaction and practice.”
The graduates’ hooding ceremony will take place at 2 p.m. on Friday at the Van Cliburn Concert Hall. Commencement ceremonies for the med school are scheduled for 9 a.m. on Saturday at Schollmaier Arena.
Briana Collins is another soon-to-be graduate.
Collins grew up in Dallas and attended Ursuline Academy before ultimately earning an undergraduate degree in kinesiology at Louisiana State University.
She will be moving to Palo Alto, California, for a three-year residency in internal medicine at Stanford Health Care. Her plan is to follow that up with a fellowship to train specifically in cardiology for another three years.
Like Avila, Collins didn’t hop from undergraduate school to med school. After graduating in 2015, she took the MCAT, the standardized test for prospective med school students, but “didn’t get the score that I wanted.” Not deterred and seeking ways to improve her candidacy, she was accepted into The University of North Texas Health Science Center’s master’s course of study in medical science.
She worked as an EMT and as-needed emergency technician at UT Southwestern. After graduating with the master’s, she dedicated three to four months preparing for the MCAT.
“I finally got the score that I was comfortable applying with after my third attempt,” Collins says.
Soon, Collins will start a residency in one of the most prestigious programs in the country. More than anything, these professional degrees require incredible work and study habits, and dogged persistence. The whole concept of quitting inspires loathing.
That brings me back to Avila, who had an active young child I could hear in the background as we spoke by phone.
Quin — “his full name is Quentin, like Quentin Tarantino” — is 16 months old.
Pregnancy during medical school is not standard operating procedure, but Avila and husband Sam found out they were expecting. Avila and Sam met in Austin on a blind date, though both were working at Lone Star Circle of Care. Avila was an enrollment counselor there, and Sam is still a physician recruiter with the company.
Avila says she’s Type-A personality when it comes to scheduling, “not spontaneous at all.”
“I like things to go the way that I plan them. And clearly that did not go that way,” Avila says. “I did not plan to be pregnant or have a child in medical school. But my husband and I became pregnant and we actually lost our first baby. Here I was freaking out about how [pregnancy] was gonna throw everything off and finally, you accept it, you fall in love, and then you lose your baby.”
Now, she had to deal with heartbreak. The couple had made plans to welcome a baby, in their home and their hearts. The experience manifested itself in the couple actually deciding to try to have a baby.
Welcome to the world, Quin.
A tight schedule remained key to handling the newcomer and her studies, plus, she had support from her family, which, by this time, had moved from Chicago to Austin, where her father operates his 23-acre ranch, specializing in sheep and goats. (A little slow cooked, oven braised cabrito would hit the spot about right now.)
“As soon as I had him, my mom [Rebeca] retired, and she was like, ‘There's no way we worked so hard to get you here collectively as a family … you’re going to keep going.’ So, she moved in with us. She was our full-time nanny/babysitter. There's no way I could have done it without her.”
There's an apothegm — or there should be if there's not — out there: It’s difficult to get through this journey of life without good friends and family, and a bottle of something.
Well, now I'm projecting.
To the inaugural graduating class of the Burnett School of Medicine, we wish you the best. It goes without saying that lots of people will be counting on you.
