From Nigeria to U.S., meet the three siblings who all became doctors

In honor of their parents’ sacrifices, Gloria, Victor and Blessing Oyeniyi are all certified doctors. Sibling rivalry is not a problem in the Oyeniyi home as their parents’ shared dream of them being doctors brought them closer, depending on each other for support when times got hard.

Originally from Nigeria, their parents left their well-paying jobs to pursue the American Dream not for themselves but their children so they could all grow to be doctors.

The system of their home country at the time failed them and the Oyeniyis did not mind leaving their professional careers to start from scratch just to make sure their children had the best in everything.

According to Victor, their father was a pilot for 19 years and their mother was a bank manager. Everyone knows the hard work it takes to be a pilot or bank manager, but the pair relocated to the United States, Texas to be precise, in 1995 to start at the bottom, nullifying their previous experiences.

They re-enrolled in college to get a second degree and further went on to pursue their masters while working odd jobs to put food on the table for the family.

“We were on welfare for a while, coming back in the U.S. and starting back up,” said Gloria. “My mom was a janitor at her first job when she started back over, and they both went back and got their college degrees and their master’s degrees.”

The Oyeniyis wanted their children to be doctors. Be it a medical doctor or a doctor of books, they wanted their kids to have those titles because it had been their dream for them.

Seeing how their parents struggled to get back on their feet after migrating to the U.S., the sibling trio put in the needed work to make the dream of their parents a reality because success was the only option for them.

“They wanted and they aspired for us to be doctors, whether it was medical or professional. They just wanted us to have that title, and be the best at anything we chose to be,” Victor told FOX 26 Houston.

They are all proud doctors now. Victor got his Doctor of Pharmacy from Texas Southern University; Gloria graduated from John P. and Kathrine G. McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. She works as a mental health professional. Blessing, the youngest and last to bag her degree, also graduated from McGovern Medical School and is practicing as a psychiatrist.

Blessing recounted how difficult it was for her at Harvard during her pre-medical courses. “It was one of the hardest things I’d ever done. I’d always excelled before that.”

The siblings would not have pursued their parent’s dream if they had not fallen in love with the profession. They admit that they thought of giving up a couple of times, but they encouraged each other and forged ahead regardless.

“We’re pretty close, so we would just tell each other, ‘Listen, we’re doing this. We can accomplish this,'” said Gloria.

Victor wrote an appreciation post on Instagram thanking their parents for believing in them and hoped they were proud of their achievements. He also hoped that their story will inspire others to also go for gold in whatever they do.

“We hope we’ve made them proud and hope we can inspire others to do the same here and afar, not just in medicine but in sports, business, entertainment and wherever excellence might lie.”

The trio are indeed siblings’ goals personified.