Medical school couldn’t stop Ginearosa Carbone from enjoying her other interests. She continued to play music, to dance and write in between studies at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. A Sand City native – her mother, Mary Ann, serves as the town’s mayor – Carbone has an eclectic range of interests. From a young age she participated in pow wows, for example, an activity encouraged because her mother’s side of the family is of Chumash ancestry. “I grew up steeped in Chumash culture,” Carbone explains.
A graduate of Monterey High School, Carbone attended Monterey Peninsula College before completing her studies in microbiology at UC Davis – with a minor in Native American studies. She selected the Duluth campus for her medical studies because of the school’s tribal and rural health initiatives. The Weekly caught up with Carbone by phone from Minnesota less than a week after “match day,” when graduates learn their destination for a medical residency, the next step toward becoming a doctor. Her internal medicine training begins at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital in June. Of her return to California she says “I’m ready to eat delicious seafood again – not to poke fun at all the great walleye here.”
Weekly: Tell me about your upbringing.
Carbone: It definitely was different. We’ve been involved in the pow wow circuit for a long time. Since I was a child I was singing and dancing. Pow wow is a great time. You hang out with family and friends, you reconnect with your roots. My mom makes jewelry and people set up stands. It’s been a great pleasure of mine since, gosh – there are pictures of me at 3 years old at pow wows.
What’s it like to have a mother in local politics? Do you call her mayor?
I call her Mayor Ann – you know, Mary Ann. She was vice mayor for a long time. I remember sitting in the back at city council meetings doing my homework while they were passing whatever.
People think of Sand City as warehouses, shops and big box stores.
Sand City is a small place, but it’s a nice place. It’s close to the beach. It has nice cafes like Sweet Elena’s – I worked there for awhile – where you can get a galette. My mom helped start the West End Celebration. It’s good to see Sand City integrated with the rest of the community.
Why medical school?
It’s always been in the back of my head. But when you have no firm college plans and you kind of sign up at MPC on a whim, you don’t know if it will work out. I idolized doctors. At MPC I took a biology class and Dr. D. – I don’t think I knew his name – made it interesting. Dr. D. encouraged me to apply and I went to UC Davis. I realized this is a possibility.
One of the issues faced by young doctors is medical school debt. Does that worry you?
I don’t think it worries me. Debt has been part of the plan, you know it will be there. I’ve kept it low by working side jobs during school to try to pay some of it back. I’m not in as bad a predicament as others. Being able to help the community far outweighs concerns about debt.
Outside of medicine, what do you do?
Music is a really big part of my life. I’m a really big metal head – yeah. I like to play music. I play guitar and drums. I even formed a small band in medical school called Docapocolypse, a metal cover band. We played at cafes, we played at the school talent show and won first place every time. I had unique interests growing up and my parents fostered that. If I wanted to do horseback riding, next week they’d enroll me in a class. If I wanted to do iaido – Japanese sword and dagger work – they’d enroll me in a class. Monterey has a lot to offer.
Geez. Is there anything else?
I’ve been working on a novel. It’s about being a student in medical school, what they don’t tell you. It’s pretty much done. I’m at 60,000 words. The goal is to publish before my residency.
What is the most important lesson you’ve learned so far in your life?
The most important is to never give up. You can make it happen if you work hard enough. Your community and the people around you are more willing to help than you think.