Briana Gamret

During her senior year of high school, Briana Gamret was torn.

She was trying to choose a school and major and while she loved biology, it seemed that God was calling her to incorporate psychology in some way. Her aunt, who is psychotherapist, has always been her biggest role model and she realized that she was the person all her peers went to for advice and encouragement. She, like her aunt, loved to lend an ear to anyone who needed it.

But biology and psychology are so different; she couldn’t see how God could be calling her to both. Was there any way to merge the two?

Unsure of what the future would hold, Briana decided to come to Geneva College to major in biology instead. Thinking that there would never be an option to combine biology and psychology realistically she considered enrolling in a nursing program and abandoning her psychology interest.

That’s when her advisor suggested combining the two and becoming a biology major with a psychology minor. “I think God was gently nudging me into it,” she says. “The mind and body are so interconnected. You should know how the body works when you’re working with someone’s mind.”

Since making the change, Briana’s decided that someday she would like to work with students making the difficult transition from high school to college. “When we come to college, we are told that it will be hard, but no one completely explains everything you deal with. Stress sets in. By spring semester you aren’t a new kid anymore and there aren’t as many programs set up to ease the transition, but you’re still dealing with it. On top of that, you’re asking who am I and doing a lot of deep soul searching.”

Briana is thankful that she didn’t neglect one of her passions just because it didn’t seem to fit, though she knows it’s hard when you aren’t sure what God is calling you to do.

She says, “If I could tell anybody one thing it would be this: if you don’t know what your purpose is, hold out faith. You will learn what it is. God has a plan for you. As long as you do your part and give him the leeway, he will lead you to the right place. Just be faithful to him and he will be faithful to you.”

After graduating in May 2012, Briana got a job as a neurophysiology technician in UPMC's Department of Clinical Neurophysiology. She is training to work in the operating room, where she will place electrodes on patients to monitor brain and nerve function during surgery. "I was very blessed to gain such a good job so quickly after graduation," she says.

Read more about what Briana has been doing since graduation here.

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