More Than Just a Number
Some students don’t want to be in the same environment as the town they grew up in, but for Darby Walsh, it was the opposite.
Darby is a junior biology major from Ashland, Nebraska. She was involved in multiple activities in high school and was familiar with that small community feel. When looking for colleges to attend, she mostly looked at the smaller colleges.
“I wanted to have a similar feeling going into college. I didn’t want to go to a big university and then just be another number and not have relationships with professors.”
Initially, Darby wasn’t looking at Midland, but after hearing from the cross country and track coach, she decided to give it a shot. Although she doesn’t participate in cross country and track anymore due to an injury, Darby is a supplemental instruction leader for organic chemistry and a part of the co-curricular drive committee. Another reason she stayed at Midland was because of her strong relationships with her professors.
“I really like the small community feel because I feel like I have good relationships with my professors. I enjoy having those relationships and building relationships with the professors because when I go to class, it’s not like I’m a number sitting in the classroom. They know me. They know more about my life than just my grades.”
The support from the professors and friends has helped Darby throughout her college journey.
“The transition to college was kind of difficult because it was so different from what I was used to. I didn’t really know that many people, and I think the community-feel and being able to meet people right away and make relationships with them really helped with adjustments.”
Having those relationships, especially with the professors, has helped Darby in her journey at Midland.
“They’ve written really good letters of recommendation for me to get into different programs, and they’ve been really helpful all around.”
She said they have good advice for what she wants to do next in life after college, and they have good resources for her to use. When Darby first came to Midland, she said she wanted to go the pre-med route but changed her mind and decided to go the pre-physical therapy route. After talking with her advisors, she decided to switch back to pre-med.
“My advisor said to stick with it because it’s more broad. It fit the route that I wanted to go and seemed interesting. All the classes in the major seem interesting to me and set me up for what I want to do next in life.”
Her final career goal is to become an oncologist to help cancer patients.
Darby Walsh is a junior biology major from Ashland, Nebraska.
