Gabrielle Odunuyi traded burnout for a new understanding of wellness thanks to a new class offered at Texas Tech.
Growing up in Dallas, Gabrielle Odunuyi spent her days in class and her evenings at work. As soon as she was old enough, she was hired as a pharmacy technician at her local Walgreens and earned money to help her single mother keep the household afloat.
“Growing up low-income affected my confidence,” Gabrielle says. “I needed to work harder to access the resources I needed for school. I often felt like I didn’t fit in.”
There was considerable trauma in her early family life – with her father in and out of the picture – and Gabrielle’s mental health suffered because of it. It was a heavy load, and she carried it alone.
“I didn’t feel like I had anyone to talk to,” she recalls.
Instead of dwelling on these setbacks or making excuses, Gabrielle studied hard and committed to creating a better life for herself and others, graduating from high school in 2024. Now at Texas Tech University, she aims to become a psychiatric nurse, and she is pursuing dual degrees in human sciences and nursing.
In the spring, Gabrielle was part of a new class: CARS 2310. The class was designed to help students think more intentionally about their overall well-being. As part of the TechThrive initiative, the course moved away from a lecture format and gave students a chance to reflect on their own journeys.
It was the perfect fit for Gabrielle, who wanted to help others but, at the time, needed to learn to help herself.
The Person I Wish I’d Had
In high school, Gabrielle volunteered in the Peer-Assistant and Leadership (PAL) program at her school, which pairs high schoolers as mentors with younger students. Gabrielle’s assignment was an elementary school girl who was grieving her older sister’s murder.
“I was scared,” Gabrielle recalls. “What could I possibly say to help someone who has experienced such loss?”
She showed up for the young girl every week, though, supported her consistently, tutored her in her schoolwork, and asked what she wanted to talk about. Eventually, the child opened up.
“I wasn’t the person who helped her achieve healing, but I was a part of her journey to healing,” Gabrielle says. “It made me realize that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to help people – I wanted to be the person I wish I’d had growing up.”
This set Gabrielle on a pathway to higher education. She looked for psychology programs at universities across Texas. Leaving Dallas and getting a fresh start was high on her list.
Her other criteria for choosing a school?
“Growing up low-income, my main concern was funding,” Gabrielle says.
That’s when Texas Tech came through with a full ride through the Terry Foundation Scholars Program. The scholarship is extremely competitive, with thousands of outstanding students across Texas applying for one of the few spots.
At Texas Tech, Gabrielle chose human sciences, a flexible degree that let her choose three areas of concentration from nutrition, counseling, human development, addiction recovery sciences, early childhood education, and other areas.
While she enjoyed learning about the science of human behavior, Gabrielle couldn’t let go of her additional interest in studying the science of the human body. That’s when she added nursing as a second major.
By her second year, Gabrielle was enrolled in courses such as microbiology and pathophysiology.
“It was a really tough semester,” she recalls. “I was struggling; I was stressed.”
Outside the classroom, Gabrielle’s calendar was booked solid. A member of President’s Select, she also volunteered as an advocate with the Community Advocacy Project for Students (CAPS), worked part-time as a certified nursing assistant in neurology, and served as a peer educator with Risk Intervention & Safety Education (RISE), leading outreach to other students.
“You can’t be around Gabrielle and be in a bad mood,” says Serena Shade, senior director of RISE. “She wants to help everyone she comes across. Gabrielle has a magnetic personality. But her greatest strength is how genuine she is.”
One of Gabrielle’s tasks with RISE was promoting new programs. One day that fall, as she left microbiology, she hustled to the free-speech area to hand out cards for a new class – CARS 2310.
“It was Mental Health Day, and we were supposed to tell students about this new class that was opening in the spring,” Gabrielle recalls. “The more I kept telling people about the class, the more I was like, ‘Wait, I want to take this.’”
She jokes that she recruited herself.
Not only did the course content sound relevant, but incentives like earning a cord at graduation and having the “Mindful Matador” accomplishment added to her transcript also appealed to Gabrielle.
Dimensions of Wellness
The in-person class consisted of four students, including Gabrielle.
“It helped me open up because it was heavy on participation,” she says. “I went into the class with a fear of public speaking, so being able to talk to my peers and my professor made me more confident.”
Gabrielle says she went into the class with a limited understanding of wellness. Like many students, images of exercise or meditation came to mind.
“I discovered there are many dimensions of wellness,” she explains.
There were eight, specifically: physical, financial, educational, social, intellectual, environmental, spiritual and emotional. Students were encouraged to examine where they thrived and areas that were overlooked.
“I’ve always studied hard; my intellectual and educational wellness were great, but physical and environmental wellness? Not so much. I was studying so much I’d forget to go outside and touch grass,” she laughs.
Ready for the Road Ahead
Now that Gabrielle has completed her human sciences degree and is a full-time nursing student with even longer hours than before, she says CARS 2310 came at the perfect time.
“Even now in nursing school, I can sit down and realize, ‘OK, I’m paying attention to academics, but I am lacking in social wellness because I haven’t talked to anyone in a few days.’”
The course reframed wellness from an elusive concept into a tangible, attainable goal.
Because the instructor, Iliana Anaya, had only four students in the class, she got to know each of them well. When Gabrielle shared that she wanted to become a psychiatric nurse, Iliana was impressed by her student’s ambition and confident she could achieve it.
“Working in mental health requires much more than clinical knowledge and technical competence,” Iliana says.
She would know; her research background is in mental health in at-risk populations.
“Psychiatric patients require someone who can sit with them during moments of fear, confusion, vulnerability, anger, sadness, or uncertainty and communicate, both verbally and nonverbally, ‘You’re safe with me,’” Iliana explains. “Gabrielle has a natural ability to do that. She disarms the people around her with her warmth and genuineness. It makes people feel comfortable without forcing a connection. I watched her do that with her classmates.”
Iliana knows how demanding a career in psychiatric care can be, and she always tells her students, “You cannot pour from an empty cup.”
As CARS 2310 grows in popularity, Iliana hopes Texas Tech sends out not only workforce-ready graduates, but graduates who can navigate challenges with confidence and understand that self care is not selfish.
“At the end of the day, we’re all students,” Gabrielle says. “We all have hard things going on or have faced hard things in our past. Being able to talk about it and discover how we can achieve wellness together will be one of my favorite memories from my time at Texas Tech.”
To enroll in CARS 2310, schedule an appointment with your advisor through Raider Success Hub.