There are many reasons Shakira Rivera shouldn’t be where she is today. But the second-year medical student at American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine (AUC) refused to succumb to the obstacles she faced and is now well on her way to achieving her dream of becoming a doctor.
“Where I’m from, you are a statistic,” Rivera says. “I was not supposed to graduate high school. I was not supposed to go to college. I wasn’t supposed to be here right now.”
Growing up in Central Florida as a first-generation American, born to parents from Cuba and Puerto Rico, Rivera has vivid memories of the struggles her family faced — from rationing the one gallon of milk in the fridge to losing all of her family’s clothes at the laundromat.
Exposure at a young age to healthcare inequities that Latinos face propelled her on her journey of going to college and medical school.
“My mom got really sick, and she didn’t speak English. I was 4 or 5 years old and translating for her, and the doctors would try and dumb it down for me,” she recalls . “How do you tell a 5-year-old your mom is this sick? And then I would have to tell that information to my mom.”
Thankfully, her mother recovered, but it was not the last time she would witness the negative impact of the lack of representation in healthcare that affects many Spanish-speaking patients. Years later, her grandmother became ill. Once again, Rivera acted as translator.
While she was pre-med in college, Rivera began working as a scribe (a person who charts and documents the physician-patient encounter for electronic medical records) for a cardiologist who became her mentor and inspiration.
“The peak point that made me realize I want to be a cardiologist was when my grandfather was really ill back in Cuba,” she says. “He had a stroke, and I had basic medical supplies with me, including a stethoscope. Thanks to my cardiology mentor, who taught me basic physical exam skills, I was able to recognize that my grandfather had atrial fibrillation and finally helped get him to a hospital far away to receive treatment.”
From Mentee to Mentor
Rivera is now a mentor to aspiring Latino med students who often don’t know where to start, just like she didn’t.
As a social media influencer on all things med school, she holds regular Q&A sessions on Instagram and TikTok to share advice and guide others who want to follow in her footsteps. Through these social media connections, she has helped multiple Latino students apply to medical school by providing feedback on their essays. Several are now med students themselves at AUC.
Rivera is also the vice president of the cardiology interest group at AUC and the vice president of the AUC chapter of the Latino Student Medical Association, an opportunity that has allowed her to network and learn more about the impact she can make in medicine. “It’s more than just a little chapter that we have here on the island. The mentorship you have through these communities and the connections you can make go above and beyond.”
Rivera’s family is extremely proud of what she’s accomplished and inspire her to continue to work hard. She’s also driven to achieve her goals for the many patients she knows will benefit from more representation in healthcare.
“Just being a Latina physician, I’m able to communicate with my patients, understand them and their culture, and that’s something that my mom and my grandparents didn’t have,” she says. “So being able to have that relationship with my patients, that they are able to speak to me and I can understand them, I know that it’s not just one person I’m treating, I’m treating the whole community.”
Rivera continues to take challenges in stride and prove those who doubted her wrong. She offers the following advice to other students just starting out on their medical school journey.
“Failure doesn’t define you. For everyone who does not believe in you, take an ounce of their doubt and turn it into your driving force. When your cup is full of determination, you will know you’re going to be successful, and you can drink from that cup.”
Get started on your own path to making a difference in the communities you will serve here.
