More than 15 years on, Kevin Kinyanjui can still see the blank sheet of white paper that Grossmont College counselor Pearl Lopez held before her. He had come to her office to talk about his aspirations to attend UC San Diego and go on to become a physician like the missionary workers he met as a boy in his native Kenya.
“She had a clear, white paper with nothing written on it,” Kinyanjui remembers. “And so, we had a journey.”
Lopez and Kinyanjui charted a path to UC San Diego, marked with the academic requirements he would complete at Grossmont College.
“You can definitely complete these requirements,” he remembers her telling him.
She would work closely with him to stay on track, and each semester they’d meet to go over the next batch of requirements he needed to tackle.
“He was so focused on wanting to be a doctor; it made a strong impression on me,” remembers Lopez, who still works as a counselor for the college’s Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS), designed to aid students who are disadvantaged by social, economic, educational, or linguistic barriers.
“I started really, really low,” Kinyanjui said. “I mean, I didn’t know anything. So, it was basic math, basic English, basic everything. I knew it was going to be a long journey.”
By 2008, his life had already changed dramatically. As a young teenager, Kinyanjui emigrated from Kenya to San Diego with his single mother, and not long after enrolled in classes in City Heights to earn his high school equivalency while washing dishes to earn a few dollars. With encouragement from his mother, Kinyanjui enrolled at Grossmont College to continue his education. He would take three buses daily to get from his home in San Diego to the campus in El Cajon.
But Kinyanjui persevered, and about four years after beginning his studies at Grossmont he went on to attend UC San Diego and major in human biology, graduate, and then complete medical school at Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine in Auburn, Alabama. He moved on to his residency at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, and landed a job at the Cleveland Clinic Florida, Indian River Hospital in Vero Beach, where he works today as a hospitalist.
Kinyanjui, 35, sometimes marvels at how far he’s come in his academic journey. But one thing he knows for sure: his time at Grossmont made him into the person he is today.
“If somebody asked me, ‘What was the most important education you had?’, it’s not when I went to medical school, or when I went to UCSD,” Kinyanjui said. “It’s when I went to community college. Because, you know, that’s when I did not believe in myself, and I didn’t think I could do anything. And completing that, even though it took a long time – I felt that’s when I believed in myself. It shaped my career and made my dream possible.”
During his time at Grossmont College, the EOPS program opened doors for Kinyanjui and made a college degree seem attainable, he said. Through the program he formed his partnership with Lopez, received help purchasing books for classes, gained access to tutors, and formed friendships with other students who struggled with the same challenges he faced.
Other mentors along the way, including a physician from Kaiser Permanente who encouraged him to become involved in health fairs in City Heights, helped propel him forward.
Today, as a physician working for one of the most highly regarded medical providers in the nation, Kinyanjui says he loves his job.
“I always feel blessed, because you can imagine when a patient comes in, the way I see it is basically the family’s broken,” he said. “My job is to get that patient back and complete, to get the family back together.”
Kinyanjui says he would like to work someday in a disadvantaged community like the one in San Diego where he grew up. He’s also interested in the work of Doctors Without Borders, the charitable organization that provides humanitarian aid in 70 countries at times of crisis and conflict.
And, perhaps, he will return to his native Kenya, where he can practice medicine and inspire young people there to pursue the path that led to the life he now leads.
“I want to go back and show people who are like me that, ‘Hey, it’s doable,’” he said.