She dreams big, works hard and never gives up. She’s been tested, found resilient and is an unqualified success. She’ll inspire and, maybe, in her own way find a cure for something as significant as cancer or Alzheimer’s disease.
Tabitha Guzman never missed a practice in her four letter-winning seasons on the San Jose State University women’s cross country team, participated in student government as the one-time Director of Students’ Rights and Responsibilities, helped build houses for impoverished families in Mexico and spent the summers of 2005 and 2006 in New York city as a research undergraduate student in chemistry at Rockefeller and Columbia Universities, respectively.
On May 26, in front of an expected crowd of more than 20,000, the San Jose resident will be recognized as one of two “Outstanding Graduating Seniors” at the 2007 San Jose State University commencement ceremony held in Spartan Stadium.
“Coming in my freshman year, I never ever thought any of this would happen. It’s really a dream come true,” says the 5-foot-5 native of Bryan, Texas about her most recent university accolade. “It’s validated my belief that working hard really allows you to obtain so many things.”
Sharply focused on her future, the three-time Western Athletic Conference All-Academic honoree is headed to Yale University where she will embark on a multi-year program to earn Ph.D. in chemistry and enter academia. Her plan is give to her future students as much as she has received from her family, friends, peers, teachers, coaches and anyone else who has turned a once bewildered and unsettled San Jose State freshman into a confident, dynamic and enthusiastic soon-to-be graduate.
HOME SCHOOLED TO STAR RUNNER
The second oldest of Francisco and Vicki Guzman’s five children, both graduates of Texas A&M University, Tabitha uncannily has maneuvered life challenges with the stride of a champion runner. Like her brothers and sisters, her mother home schooled her until she enrolled at The King’s Academy in Sunnyvale as a high school junior. Tabitha was a distance runner on the girls’ track team her senior year and set school records in the 800, mile and 2-mile races.
Choosing San Jose State to begin her college education, Tabitha did not have the option to participate in track and field. While she would later run circles around students with her dazzling classroom work, Guzman was bored racing around the track oval. To be a Spartan, she’d have to take up cross country. A little nudging from San Jose State cross country head coach Augie Argabright calmed any fears about running longer distances and racing along a circuit course where her creativity, skill and mental toughness could be challenged simultaneously in athletic competition.
TRAGEDY, CONFLICTS & CHALLENGES
As a first semester freshman in 2002, Guzman was confronted with the deaths of her younger brother, Thomas, from an allergic reaction to an allergy shot in September and her grandmother who succumbed to pancreatic cancer later that year.
“At the time, I tried to cope with it by running ? trying to distract myself,” she remembers. “When you loved someone, then someone just leaves, you don’t know how to handle it.
“I’m a completely different person than I was my freshman year. The one thing I can hold true to is I really loved my little brother. I always wanted to be sure that the things I’m doing would make him proud.
“I was coaching him when he was 13, because he wanted to be a runner. He had broken records at The King’s Academy. He was running with their junior high team, doing so well and working so hard. He was such a hard worker like me. Me, him and my dad are so much alike.”
Her class curriculum was more along the lines of her mother’s college major ? food sciences. She remembers memorizing vitamins without the emotional involvement that now engulfs her current life interests. Chemistry 1A and 1B, first year general support classes for a nutritional sciences major, simply were by-products to a perceived desired result.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I couldn’t drop it (Chemistry 1A) and I ended up really liking it. From then, I gravitated towards taking more chemistry classes. I was just going to do a minor. Then, I realized I had done this much, so I might as well do a major. That was how it started,” explains Guzman about her love of chemistry.
“WOW” FACTOR KICKS IN
A Dean’s List student and four-time San Jose State “Scholar-Athlete,” Guzman became enthralled with New York city in the summer of 2005 which she spent at Rockefeller University. There was a return to the “Big Apple” in 2006 to Columbia University after turning down Stanford and M.I.T. Her summer at Columbia convinced her that graduate work was the next leg in her educational circuit training.
And, top-notch institutions nationwide validated her interest. Yale won out over acceptances from the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown, NYU (New York University), Rice and Boston University.
“(I have) five to six years at Yale. We have second-year orals (for a master’s degree equivalent). I’ll probably venture into academia. I want to give back to people. There are people who have given to me so much,” Guzman says with passion.
“I want to let people know they have the capabilities. It’s about realizing your own potential...Academia is a great place to channel that energy and give back. That’s something I really want to do. There is the research avenue, but I think I really want to teach.”
FINISHING STRONG
For some, the anxiety of pursuing graduate school opportunities is daunting. There is the demand to prosper in regular class assignments and avoid a senior year letdown while still enjoying a college experience. Tabitha’s academic success mirrored her best season on the cross country team.
“The past season was the best season. I broke 19 (minutes in the 5K), which was really hard. That was amazing. To go from 20:25 (my freshman year) to 18:44 (at the 2006 Bronco Invitational), I was so happy,” beams Guzman, who was part of the first San Jose State team in any sport to compete on the University of Notre Dame campus in South Bend, Ind.
Tabitha also helped the Spartans to a third-place finish at the WAC Championships, a program best, for the second year in a row. She finished her college cross country career helping San Jose State to a best-ever 15th place finish at the 2006 NCAA West Regional Championships.
“Cross country gave me that validation, that extra validation that allowed to realize, you know, I can really do this. I always did well in my classes, but it didn’t mean I was always validated,” explains Guzman whose sister Anna plans to enroll as a freshman at San Jose State this fall and compete on the women’s tennis team. “Cross country helped validate a different side of me. That was really great.
“I learned a lot about discipline and self-motivation. Working hard pays off. It was such a great experience. The girls on the cross country team are so different. It was great to have that outlet.
“I had my chemistry and I had my running. It really balanced out well. Augie (Argabright) is a great coach. He is so positive, so supportive.”
THE COACH’S PERSPECTIVE
“She kept getting better and better for four straight years. She was always fun to coach. When she started, she was naïve about any kind of training methods,” describes Argabright, who coached Guzman her entire college career.
“It doesn’t surprise me what she can achieve. She’s going to get the maximum out of what she can do. That’s the way she has been academically and as a runner.”
“It’s always nice to coach and have athletes who want to be the best they can be. She knows she can’t run with our best runners, but she was very important to our team this year with the way she placed. With just pure toughness, she realized she had to run as best she can. I hate to lose her, because she’s so positive.”
San Jose State inspired Tabitha Guzman to dream big. And, she’s turned these dreams into a promising, bright future. In a few years, Dr. Tabitha Guzman will be shining clearly and passionately educating the next generation of college students.
“I feel it is important to encourage a love for science. It is the foundation of so many aspects of our lives. In addition, to helping people think critically and ?outside the box,’ chemistry provides an understanding of the physical world around us,” says the 2007 San Jose State University “Outstanding Graduating Senior” award winner.