HoC: Nicole Barbari
Humans Of Chaffey
Photo of: Nicole Barbari
Starting off as a young girl with aspirations of becoming a pediatrician, she soon found out that that wasn't where she was meant to be. So she navigated her education and career to be where she needed to be by equipping herself with valuable lessons that show how her current position in life wasn't her only position. And she showed that if you're willing to push yourself, you have the power to do whatever your heart desires.
Understanding your foundation
As kids, through watching our parents and by simply experiencing life, we pick up on certain things that peak our interest. Sometimes they’re insignificant and they fade away, and other times they’re small moments that can be the catalyst for the trajectory of our entire life. Barbari discovered her catalyst in the fifth grade when she watched a show about a doctor helping students. She stated:
“I saw the show. I don't even remember the name of it, but the doctor was really good with his patients and he would be honest with them and say things like, I know it's going to hurt, but you're going to be okay. And I was like, I want to be like him. I want to make sure that I'm honest with children and that I do the right thing.”
The simple act of someone helping another, affected her and formed her ideologies. And although we have the benefit of hindsight, it's important to be able to identify your core values so you can choose a career that fits.
Waiting for opportunity
Growing up, when you have an idea of what you want to do in life, it can be hard to change your dreams. Although it is important to remember we can never truly know about something unless we experience it, this is something Barbari stumbled upon early on in her career. Barbari states: “...to change my career in that direction. It was more of me just saying yes to opportunities and trying it out. I stumbled into it. In grad school one of my professors just said, ‘hey, I would like you to teach this class, be a supplemental instructor’ and another professor said ‘you know, can you work as a TA in my lab.’ So I just started doing that, I just said, ‘Yes, sure. You believe in me. You want me to do it. Okay, I'll do it.'" The love for helping was always there, but for some reason, she didn’t feel she fit as a pediatrician. The environment didn’t feel right, but when she took a gamble at teaching, she discovered a new love that continued to build off the foundations of who she is as a person and allowed her to help people in a different way.
Understanding your purpose
Nicole found herself in a career that feels at home, but what is next? There is the foundation of wanting to help people. And finding a way to do that within the parameters of education, which brings a uniquely satisfying return to the investment one puts in, that's got to feel like you've made it to the mountain top.
For Barbari, that couldn't be further from truth. She stated: "I kept going back to like the questions that I had about people during my learning, because I was asking, ‘how do people commit such atrocities, how is that possible.’ You know, I can't even fathom that. I can't relate. So that was fascinating to me. It's like a puzzle. That was the problem that I wanted to solve.”
A big question in life is not so much of how we got to where we were, but why we stay where we are. Psychology is a subject that takes a lot out of a person mentally and emotionally. To try and understand the way the mind works and what causes people to do certain things can be taxing. Most importantly it’s a conversation worth having, and it takes a compassionate and understanding person to be able to tackle those difficult questions and to have those conversations. And it’s always the subtle moments in life that influence our direction, even if we don’t realize it at the time. All it took was a visit to the Museum of Tolerance for Nicole and those seeds of seeking answers and truly understanding the human mind were already planted there.
The endgame of an empathetic driven career
When you have a foundation and you have a purpose, it often makes you think of where things will go in the future. What the endgame might be and what is the big takeaway you want students to have from your class.
Barbari states: “My core goals for students is enthusiasm for learning and also building self efficacy, which is this, to know they have the resources to tackle new challenges.”
She has always had a passion for learning and trying new things and even when she had to switch directions for her career, she saw that someone believed in her. So it only makes sense that she wants to impart the same belief to students. To show them that hard work pays off and that they can accomplish more than they think. And that now is the time to push yourself, because the more you do the more you will start to believe in yourself.
Psychology is very personal, but also has very broad social implications, and there’s almost a responsibility now more than ever to help students understand that. Barbari said: “The responsibility, I think, is just as high as it ever was, but I think more people should know about psychology, because it really affects the way they see themselves.”
For Barbari, the responsibility has always remained the same, regardless of the current political climate because there will never not be a time where understanding the human condition isn’t immensely important. As Barbari, reaches the part of her career where she feels accomplished and even has desires of obtaining a doctorates and even writing a book, the mission statement for her life remains very much the same. To push yourself, to know yourself and to help others do the same.