Trinity’s Future Faces in Medicine

Trinity's Future Faces in Medicine
Pre-Med Track gives Tigers personalized prep for the next step

Trinity University's Pre-Med track is a challenging road, but no one walks it alone.

Supported by a community, dedicated faculty attention, and access to hands-on learning in labs, clinics, and more, Tigers are finding their own passions for medicine.

Whether it starts with a love of crime scene podcasts, a celebration of culture, or the chance to build connections, see how Pre-Med students at Trinity emerge as healthy, well-rounded, passionate candidates for the next level.

Siya Babbar
Biology

Siya Babbar '27 sits with her parents, convincing them she wants to become a lawyer, or an engineer, rather than follow them both into the medical field. One's a physician, one's an occupational therapist.

"I grew up being in the hospital," Babbar says, "and this didn't feel like a happy place to be for me a lot of the time."

After Babbar lost her high school engineering mentor to breast cancer, she felt the unfairness of death. "Someone with so much spirit and energy should not have passed from her own body attacking itself."

Babbar was happy, however, listening to true crime podcasts and reading books that sparked an interest in forensic science. "I have a strong sense of justice and fairness," she says. "A lot of things in life are so unfair ... there's so many people who get horrible life-altering diseases or people who are murdered or violently hurt. It feels unjust that these things continue to happen."

At Trinity, Babbar discovered that there was a way to tailor her interests and STEM-related talents around legal justice and crime. Yes, she's following her parents into the medical field, but on her own terms: Babbar is set on becoming a forensic pathologist, a medical scientist who analyzes crime scenes and helps speak for those who no longer can. "Rather than being a lawyer, I would be on the other side doing the autopsies," she says. "Figuring out what happened."

A junior biology major, Babbar is getting the chance to hone the skills she'll need. She works in a neurobiology lab, trains clients as a cognitive brain trainer-helping people recover memory and processing skills-and volunteers at a local hospital. Each experience adds another layer to how she understands the human body, and the stories it carries.

Babbar's path on the Pre-Med track might be a bit different than some of her classmates, but she'll still need to demonstrate a well-roundedness to stand out as med school applications approach.

And Trinity's liberal arts environment gives her the chance to pursue all the things that make her happy. When she's not dreaming of reconstructing a crime scene, her voice is soaring as an alto in one of Trinity's choral ensembles. She's got time to read, and try classes and subjects that expand her perspectives beyond STEM. And she's flourishing as a member of Alpha Chi Lambda, part of Trinity's non-national approach to Greek Life, which emphasizes community, friendship and service.

Babbar sees this type of exploration as prep for the kind of doctor she wants to be. "In forensic pathology, you need to be curious," she says. "I would say almost anyone can study the science, but the liberal arts help you learn how to ask questions, and how to make the science digestible for other people."

Babbar still has a long way to go, with applications for med school looming. But ask her if she's in a place, emotionally and literally, where she can be happy with medicine, and she beams.

"I feel so supported," she says. "And I'm ready for the next step."

Sameed Aijaz '26
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Eyes drooping, laptop screen humming, and the moon beaming overhead, Sameed Aijaz 26 powered through late nights studying for his MCATs on a unique fuel source.

"Not a lot of small universities have a place where you can get good Mediterranean food," he says. "Trinity, in San Antonio, has such a diverse community both on and off campus."

Aijaz, a biochemistry and molecular biology major (BCMB) and Spanish minor, is thrilled to announce that he's accepted a pre-match offer for med school, which he calls "an immense privilege." And he credits the many forms of community that he's found here at Trinity.

First, he found a community of faculty dedicated to one-on-one conversations. What started as a routine chat with Chemistry professor Christina Cooley Ph.D., turned into an in-depth exploration of academic possibilities he hadn't yet considered, namely changing his major to BCMB. "I don't think at any university I'd have gotten that treatment," he says. "that changed everything."

Next, he drew energy from his peers. "At Trinity, you're surrounded by people who are like-minded and very ambitious. Being around that makes you more ambitious too."

Through organizations like the Muslim Student Association and the South Asian Student Association, Aijaz found spaces that felt like home. "Having people who understand your upbringing… it gives you some comfort," he says. "College isn't easy. It helps to have a lifeline."

That sense of belonging extends into the city around him. In San Antonio, Aijaz found opportunities to grow as a person. Whether practicing his Spanish in the community, volunteering at clinics, or simply finding a favorite meal at Dimassi's Mediterranean Buffet during long MCAT study sessions, the city became part of his support system.

"San Antonio has that 'home' aspect to it," he says. "It feels very cozy, but it's also incredibly diverse."

Aijaz was pleasantly surprised to find opportunities to shadow real doctors at the Corazon and El Bari clinics, where Aijaz worked directly with patients from a wide range of backgrounds. "Medicine is unique in that you build long-term relationships," he says. "You're treating people over time, sometimes even generations. That's really powerful."

It's a milestone he's proud of-but one he didn't reach alone.

At Trinity, in San Antonio, and within every community he's been part of, Sameed Aijaz says he found the same thing: people who showed up, stayed connected, and made the journey meaningful.

Victoria Baker

Biology

Victoria Baker '27 pulls up a color-coded planner, sifting through a chock-full calendar that would stress out a chief medical resident, let alone a college junior.

There's physics class, prep-work for her upcoming MCATs, shadowing at a free ophthalmology clinic (that's eyecare), and somewhere in there, she assures us, she's found time to launch herself into the all-conference conversation as a pole vaulter for Trinity's Track and Field team.

Put the whole picture together, and it's clear Baker's time prioritizes the personal. "I came to Trinity torn between research and medicine, but I knew what I wanted most was to have connections with people," Baker says.

A biology major on the pre-med track, Baker has built these connections in a liberal arts environment that's given her the flexibility to pursue many passions.

Baker is a history buff, and loves how her Mediterranean Studies Minor links her to timeless lessons from antiquity. She's fascinated by how ancient ideas still shape modern systems, including medicine. "There's so many ways we can trace medical knowledge back to ancient discoveries," she says. "I just love the continuity of it all."

In a biomedical ethics course, one of her favorites so far, Baker found herself drawn to questions that don't resolve cleanly: what defines a person, or how moral frameworks shape decisions around life and death. "You see the way that people think and work through stuff," she says. "Ethical issues that are super non-concrete… it could go any number of ways."

For Baker, those conversations mirror what she hopes to do in medicine: listen, interpret, and respond to individuals, not just symptoms.

That human focus sharpened during hands-on experiences across San Antonio. While shadowing physicians, she saw how care changes from patient to patient. Through a mobile eye screening unit run in partnership with UT Health San Antonio, she took an even more active role, working one-on-one with community members.

"I just love seeing how you can take such an individualized approach to each person to make sure they have the best experience possible," she says.

Baker's next steps all will rely on the connections she's built. On the track team, she's hoping to be a captain next year, which comes with the chance to help build relationships between her teammates and coaches. As she heads into a summer research lab with professor Jonathan King Ph.D., she has the invaluable chance to work directly with the head of the Pre-Med advising board. And as she's studying for the MCAT, drafting personal statements, and getting ready to apply to medical school, she says she's glad her calendar is so full.

It's full of the people and things that matter to her. "That's why you come to a smaller school," she says.