{"id":4955,"date":"2020-04-22T12:47:17","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T19:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/?p=4955"},"modified":"2023-05-23T14:11:08","modified_gmt":"2023-05-23T21:11:08","slug":"they-were-friends-before-they-got-to-the-honors-college-their-shared-experience-made-them-friends-for-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/2020\/04\/22\/they-were-friends-before-they-got-to-the-honors-college-their-shared-experience-made-them-friends-for-life\/","title":{"rendered":"They were friends before they got to the Honors College. Their shared experience made them friends for life."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sometimes, if you\u2019re lucky, there are relationships that accompany you through every stage of life. This has been true for Oregon State Honors College graduates Brandon Togioka and Bory Kea. Friends when they were kids and now colleagues at the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), they have remained close through experiences both shared and unique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brandon\nand Bory both grew up in Salem, where they attended the same middle school and\nhigh school, and they then continued their education at the Oregon State Honors\nCollege as bioengineering students. There, their friendship was sustained and\nstrengthened by their honors experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brandon\nknew he would be going to the Honors College and Oregon State as soon as he\nreceived his early acceptance.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Brandon Togioka<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cOnce\nI got in, I didn\u2019t look anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At\nthe time, McNary Hall was the honors residence, and when Brandon moved in at\nthe start of his first year, it became the foundation of his experience. As a\nfreshman, he cultivated new friendships there; as a sophomore, he became\nprogram assistant of the hall; and as a junior, he became assistant hall\ndirector. His senior year, Brandon was a resident assistant on campus at\nanother hall, but he remained connected to McNary and honors residential life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many\nof Brandon\u2019s fondest memories are associated with on-campus life and community,\nsuch as the mud football matches the residence halls used to hold on Saturdays\nbefore football games and when McNary participated in \u2013 and won \u2013 Greek Life\u2019s\nannual All University Sing competition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brandon\nenjoyed the Honors College classes he took as much as the honors community.\n\u201c[The classes] help you feel like you\u2019re in a small college atmosphere, but\nyou\u2019re part of a bigger community. It\u2019s the best of both worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However,\nwhen asked what the absolute best aspect of the Honors College experience was,\nBrandon doesn\u2019t hesitate: \u201cThe connections.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Bory Kea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Particularly,\nwith Bory, Brandon felt a sense of confidence and reassurance about his career\npath. The two of them both went through honors science classes and even lived\ntogether at one point while pursuing their bioengineering degrees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attending\nOregon State was also a no-brainer for Bory. Beaver is in her blood \u2013 a long\nline of her relatives have attended OSU, and it has become something of a\nfamily tradition. Beyond her legacy ties, though, Bory was attracted to the\nmany opportunities Oregon State and the Honors College provide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She\nstates that being a part of the HC made her college experience feel more\n\u201cspecial,\u201d and the program helped her to grow as a student and as a person. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her\nfondest memories within the Honors College involve the trips she participated\nin as an honors student, including days at Sunriver fly-fishing and skiing. The\nHC took her even further when she spent three months in Argentina to perform\nresearch and explore a different culture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bory\nagrees with Brandon that the smaller classes available through the HC were a\nbig part of her college experience: \u201cThey were more accessible [than other\nclasses] and made learning easier.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some\nof their favorite memories at OSU were ones they shared together, like studying\nin the basement of Gleeson Hall and attending football games with each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After\nBrandon and Bory completed their undergraduate degrees, they both went on to\nprestigious medical schools, at John Hopkins University and Stanford\nUniversity, respectively. Now, they each hold positions at OHSU \u2013 Brandon as an\nAssociate Professor of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine at the School\nof Medicine and Bory as an Assistant Professor and Director of Clinical Trials\nin the Department of Emergency Medicine in the School of Medicine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bory\nrecalls that after her arrival at OHSU in August 2012, she began trying to\nconvince Brandon to join her. By happy coincidence, he arrived only a year\nlater, in November 2013. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ntwo have grown up together, through the awkwardness of middle school, the\ntrials of high school, the challenges of undergrad and now to the successes of\nprofessional careers. It\u2019s been a long journey that\u2019s ended up close to where\nit started, living only three blocks from each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While\ntheir relationship has the longest history, Bory and Brandon developed other\nconnections as honors students that have ended up standing the test of time. In\nfact, Bory is now married to another Honors College graduate, Yosuke Yamamoto,\nwho received a degree in chemical engineering and now works as an engineer in\nPortland. Patrick Lew, another HC graduate, also remains in Brandon and Bory\u2019s\nshared circle of friends; like them, he graduated in bioengineering and went to\nmedical school. He now works in internal medicine and pediatrics in Portland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nasked about friendships through the Honors College, both Brandon and Bory agree\nthat cultivating relationships is essential to the experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\nget most of the positive benefits through the connections and the\nrelationships,\u201d Brandon says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bory\nstates that if you invest in friendships and work hard to maintain them, \u201cThey\ncan be long-lasting relationships.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They might even last a lifetime.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

By: Cara Nixon, Student Writer<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes, if you\u2019re lucky, there are relationships that accompany you through every stage of life. This has been true for Oregon State Honors College graduates Brandon Togioka and Bory Kea. Friends when they were kids and now colleagues at the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), they have remained close through experiences both shared and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9506,"featured_media":4960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1205,645351,82,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","category-alumni-and-friends","category-features","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9506"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4955"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8706,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4955\/revisions\/8706"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}