Alumni Feature: Sabina Spigner, MSBIO ’18
Sabina Spigner, Master of Science in Biology ’18, MPH, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2016, having studied neuroscience and gender studies. “I needed to boost my GPA and become a better student before I was ready for med school, so that’s how I found Chatham,” she says. Today she is a second-year medical student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Spigner says she had struggled a lot at Penn to make connections with peers and professors and was delighted to find that that was not the case at Chatham. “Because Chatham is such a tight-knit community, I was really able to make deep connections with my peers and professors. I loved the material, I loved learning it, I loved feeling like I was smart again. I didn’t know if I was capable of being a good enough student to succeed in med school, so Chatham really helped build my self-esteem back up. I had a great two years.”
In fact, Spigner was only supposed to be at Chatham for one year, but she was given an opportunity that she couldn’t say no to.
At Chatham, she took organic chemistry with Dr. Robert Lettan. “I was really intimidated by that course because I had withdrawn from it as an undergrad,” she says. “But Dr. Lettan is such a wonderful teacher and really communicates effortlessly the intricacies that is organic chemistry. And he reached out to me and said ‘You seem to have a knack for organic chemistry, and I have a research project if you want’ and I was like ‘okay LOL’, but he hit me up! I had to really think about it because of the imposter syndrome in my mind. But I agreed to do it.”
“The project was a synthetic organic chemistry project where we were looking at an anti-cancer drug analog and trying to create that,” she continues. “It was a really great experience. I’d never worked in an organic chemistry lab before, and I love working with Dr. Lettan; he really pushed me to think, he pushed me as an intellectual. I just needed that belief and trust in myself from myself and also from faculty members. He and others really helped instill that sense of confidence in me that I’m able to be a good researcher and eventual doctor.”
“Chatham’s community is amazing especially for a student like myself who really needed to gain that sense of confidence. I connected so easily with everyone there. I learned so much, nobody was intimidating, and I really could tell that the faculty at Chatham cares about how well the students are doing both in academics and in their personal life, which is not something you get at a larger university.”
Following her time at Chatham, Spigner earned a master’s in public health from Jefferson University, where she immersed herself in the study of public health for marginalized communities. “I have big dreams, she laughs. “As an eventual doctor, I would love to be a practicing OB-gynecologist specializing in the fields of LGBTQ health and family planning ,and really help contribute to the advancement and improvement of healthcare inclusivity for marginalized populations. I’ve seen as a Black, gay woman and a medical trainee how medical education is failing Black and LGBTQ patients, let alone those who are at the intersection of those identities. One of my goals is to help change that and work with medical institutions to improve how they’re teaching their students.”
“I’ve spent my whole life in academia, and Chatham was the first place where the teachers were really there for the students, and that’s how it should be,” Spigner says. “So I really appreciate Chatham for giving me the opportunity and exposing me to the wonderful people who are still my great friends–with the professors who taught me, we talk all the time, and they’ll be lifelong friends for sure, and I’m really thankful for that.”
Chatham has always valued science, and we have a number of undergraduate and graduate programs to prove that. Explore the School of Arts, Science & Business, the Falk School of Sustainability & Environment, and the School of Health Sciences to find your niche.