Pittsburgh, Pa. – While many kids grow up discussing their lofty dreams of being an astronaut, a firefighter, or even a doctor,
Anissa Gamble was a little more specific when it came to talking about the future.
"When I was eight, when I was first asked what I want to be in school," Gamble recalled, "I said I wanted to be a pediatrician, which is pretty abnormal."
Maybe abnormal for the average eight-year-old, but Gamble's childhood was never quite typical. The Fredericton, New Brunswick, native has been her own patient ever since she can remember, as she suffers from type 1 diabetes, celiac disease and Hashimoto's disease. But Gamble has never considered herself at a disadvantage in any aspect of life. As with anything else, she chooses to view her diagnoses in the most positive light.
"They're all autoimmune linked [diseases], and I find that pretty fascinating, "Gamble explained. "You know, your body is so complex and just the smallest thing can go wrong and it can create a cascade of events. I've always had an interest in the human body and then going forward I shadowed a bunch of different jobs and did a bunch of different jobs and I've always had a huge passion in medicine. So whenever I step into the hospital it's almost like the same feeling when I step into the rink and play."
Gamble is in her fourth and final season with the
Robert Morris University women's hockey team. She grew up loving the sport, similar to her love of medicine.
"I think any Canadian has played hockey at one time in her life," she admitted, "but I started playing when I was young and we played on this pond up the road in the woods. I'm from the east coast of Canada and there's not many of those kind of opportunities, so I kind of used hockey as a way to sort of leave. So I actually left home when I was 14 and I went to a boarding school, a terrific place called Appleby College, to play hockey and further my education."
Admittedly, Gamble is not the most prolific player on the ice. In her four seasons with the Colonials, she's posted five goals, including one in a win against Merrimack this season, and five assists in 94 games played. But she takes pride in her role on the team, nonetheless.
"I'm definitely not the best player, "Gamble said. "I'm not even close to it. But I think my role is to bring energy and to always have that work ethic. I'll be the first person on the ice, and if I don't have class, I'll be the last one off. I love to think that I'm the person that pushes our big guns on the team to push themselves. Hockey is a huge passion of mine and it's something I do that makes me so happy when I do it."
Gamble carries that same work ethic off the ice and into the classroom each day. She is president of the Pre-Med Club and founded a pre-med specific national honor society. She is constantly working toward her ultimate career goal, which is to attend medical school back in Canada and become an endocrinologist, a doctor who studies the endocrine system and its diseases.
Reflecting back on her experience as a student at RMU, Gamble believes the past four years have put her in the best possible position to be successful in her future career and beyond. She is grateful to have had the opportunity to receive a quality education in the field she loves, while playing the sport she's had a passion for since childhood.
"I love this school," Gamble gushed. "Our program here is small, I know every professor by name and they all know me and I can go talk to them whenever. So it's kind of amazing having 20 students in your class and really getting to know the material and each other and then also have an impact on how the program is growing. Since I started when I was a freshman, we didn't have a minor in chemistry and now we do. The whole program is amazing and it's definitely something that's exponentially growing and it's just like Robert Morris in a sense. It's growing, it's becoming more well-known and in the next 20 years, it's going to be the place to be."
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