When Samantha Mujica – she’s in the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV Class of 2024 – remembers her life in high school and college, there are times when she wonders how she got the energy to handle it.

In addition to keeping herself on the honor roll with her studies so a dream of becoming a physician could be a reality, she worked at least 36 hours a week at jobs that included: waitressing at three different eateries, cleaning auditoriums and hawking concessions at a movie theater, and selling shades at a Sunglass Hut.

“At the time I didn’t think anything of it,” she says. “I thought it was normal … When college (at the University of Nevada, Reno) came around, I would serve mornings at one restaurant, afternoons/evenings at another, and evenings at my other restaurant during my days off from the other two. I honestly don’t know how I managed … After-school naps definitely helped me get through those years.”

Role models in the form of her mother and father had a lot to do with Mujica’s view of normality.

When she was a child, her father, a Mexican immigrant who obtained U.S. citizenship, worked full-time in the payroll office at a Reno casino and went to school at night to become an accountant. Her mother worked full-time as a waitress and went to school at night to become a nurse. To help pay the bills, they also delivered newspapers in the early morning.

“I distinctly remember them waking up my sister and me around 2 or 3 a.m. to get us in the car so they could drive around town delivering newspapers while my sister and I slept in the back seat … My parents instilled in my sister and me that we could achieve any goal we set through commitment and hard work … It’s certainly helped me get ready for 12 and 14 hours of studying in medical school.”

That early lifestyle, Mujica says, worked in large part because her grandparents helped raise her, her sister, and their cousin. “My grandma would spend time helping me with homework and taught me many of the things I know today. Whether it was basic arithmetic, how to cook and bake, or how to garden, I owe a lot to her.”

Her mother’s road to nursing made a big impression on Mujica.

“I remember the long days she spent studying while in nursing school. She’d work, switching between day and night waitressing shifts while going to school full-time. Sometimes she’d take me to her lectures or she would bring home IV kits and I’d watch her practice placing IVs on my dad. When she eventually became a nurse, she’d always come home with a story and talk about patients and their families. It was really admirable to know she was helping people every day and it sparked my initial desire to pursue medicine … I knew then, though, that I wanted to become a doctor, not a nurse.”

While Mujica says her parents' contentious breakup while she was in high school wasn’t easy to live with, she says it did show her that she has the ability to compartmentalize. “Now I know, regardless of what is happening in my personal life, I am able to adjust and focus on what needs to be done in my professional life.”

During her last year of undergraduate school at the University of Nevada, Reno, Mujica says she became fully aware of the importance of empathy in medicine. When a close cousin’s difficult pregnancy resulted in the loss of twins, Mujica says the care of nurses and doctors helped the family through the tragic situation.

“They really cared. The connection was far more than generic care. Four years later, my cousin was still connected to them. She had their support through her next pregnancy that gave me my wonderful godson, who is 2 years old now. The compassion and dedication I saw are among the biggest reasons I aspire to work in the medical field. To me, nothing is more gratifying than being able to provide help to those in need. I want to be the person others instill their trust in. I want to be able to build relationships with the patients I encounter. I want to be able to help solve people's medical issues through good times and bad, even when it comes to a tragic situation.”

What has helped her deal with stress, Mujica says, is hot vinyasa yoga, a constantly moving and flowing sequence of postures done in a room heated to more than 90 degrees.

“It has been my savior through medical school. I go every weekend to the same studio I first started going to when I first moved to Vegas for medical school. It provides a release of the stress and tension I have from the week prior, as well as it grounds me and mentally prepares me for the upcoming week. It amazes me how big of a difference it has made in my physical body and mentality.”

Mujica plans to specialize in interventional radiology, a medical sub-specialty of radiology utilizing minimally-invasive, image-guided procedures to diagnose and treat diseases.

“I love the diagnostic side that allows me to maintain all the medical knowledge I have gained, and will gain, while allowing me to be involved with each specialty when they request images. I also love that the interventional side allows me to use my hands and perform minimally invasive procedures for patients in many different body systems. The procedures often allow patients quicker recoveries and better outcomes.”