{"id":91378,"date":"2014-05-13T08:38:42","date_gmt":"2014-05-13T12:38:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=91378"},"modified":"2014-05-13T11:39:33","modified_gmt":"2014-05-13T15:39:33","slug":"portraits-of-strength-sandra-bixler-07-clas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2014\/05\/portraits-of-strength-sandra-bixler-07-clas\/","title":{"rendered":"Portraits of Strength: Sandra Bixler ’07 (CLAS)"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was first published in the Spring 2014 edition of\u00a0<\/em>UConn Magazine<\/a>. To access more stories like this, visit\u00a0s.uconn.edu\/spring 14<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/a> or <\/em>download\u00a0<\/a><\/em>UConn Magazine’s<\/a> free app<\/a>\u00a0for tablet devices.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
It was 1933 when UConn students so insightfully designated the husky as the symbol of strength, grit, and resolve that has come to define the true spirit of the University. In this special feature, UConn Magazine<\/em> invited 11 proud UConn alumni to speak out about what defines them, from their darkest struggles to their greatest triumphs. And no matter how different their backgrounds, their hardships, or the mistakes they may have made along the way, that same enduring strength and indomitable spirit remains, living on at the heart of every Husky.<\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Sandra\"<\/a><\/div>\n

Sandra Bixler \u201907 (CLAS) wasn\u2019t surprised when she heard the news of her twin brother\u2019s death at the end of her junior year at UConn. \u201cI think the first thing I said to my mother was \u2018I already know.\u2019 The day before I found out, I got a strange feeling that\u2019s hard to describe. I just knew something had happened to him,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Marine Cpl. Stephen Bixler was killed while on patrol in Al Anbar province, Iraq, on May 4, 2006. He was 20 years old.<\/p>\n

Leaving the University that morning, Bixler was shocked to see others going on with their daily routines. \u201cI thought, \u2018Hadn\u2019t their worlds stopped, too? Didn\u2019t they know what happened?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The siblings, who had grown up in Suffield, Conn., were very close. \u201cI was scared for him,\u201d says Bixler of her only sibling, who joined the Marines right after high school graduation. \u201cFor as long as I can remember, he wanted to go into the military.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keeping in touch with Stephen through letters, she, meanwhile, was college-bound. Her parents, Richard \u201975 (ED) and Linda Bixler \u201975 (RHSA), are UConn alumni, and it was a logical choice to follow in their footsteps, she says.<\/p>\n

With their support, Bixler returned to campus the fall after Stephen\u2019s death for her senior year, but she felt estranged from her classmates. \u201cI was different than the average college student. Not everyone could understand what I had been through,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

A molecular and cell biology major, Bixler threw herself into her studies, writing her honors thesis on hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome, a rare and sometimes fatal infectious disease that affects the lungs. \u201cMy brother would have wanted me to go out and do my best,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Studying helped. So did hearing about her twin brother from the men in his unit. \u201cThey had some great stories,\u201d she says. And there were ceremonies honoring her brother\u00a0\u2013 including a memorial service at Camp Lajeune in North Carolina, where Stephen had been stationed. In Suffield, a street and the local post office were renamed in his honor.<\/p>\n

But it was her family that ultimately held her together. \u201cMy parents and I really helped each other out,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

During her senior year at UConn, Bixler began to clarify her plans for the future. \u201cFocusing so much on my thesis, I realized I wanted to study infectious diseases in graduate school,\u201d she says. After a year gaining practical experience working in a lab, she started a Ph.D. program in emerging infectious diseases at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) in Bethesda, Md.<\/p>\n

Life is short, and it\u2019s important to take chances. \u2014Sandra Bixler \u201907 (CLAS)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

USU is the nation\u2019s only federal health sciences university, and is ranked among the best medical schools in the country. Though most of its students are military officers, the university\u2019s medical school accepts a small number of civilian graduate students into its biomedical sciences and public health programs.<\/p>\n

Bixler is researching how the loss of a specific type of T cell affects disease progression in HIV. She\u2019s also examining ways to prevent this loss and improve patient outcome. She expects to graduate this spring. \u201cMy dream job is to work for the Centers for Disease Control,\u201d she says. With her specialization in HIV, working in an African country is also something she is considering.<\/p>\n

There are no tuition costs for any students at USU, military or civilian, says Bixler. And while that was a consideration in her choosing the school, Stephen\u2019s commitment to the service was a factor as well. \u201cBeing a military school, I feel a connection to my brother here,\u201d she says. She also appreciates the proximity to Arlington National Cemetery, where her brother is buried, and visits his grave as often as she can.<\/p>\n

Eight years after the death of her twin, Bixler says things are better than the May morning when her world fell apart. \u201cNot easier, but better. I still think of him every day,\u201d she says. Opportunity is often born out of tragedy, and Bixler admits that she would not have considered going to graduate school so far from home if not for the loss of her brother. \u201cHis death made me realize that life is short, and it\u2019s important to take chances.\u201d
\n<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article was first published in the Spring 2014 edition of\u00a0UConn Magazine. To access more stories like this, visit\u00a0s.uconn.edu\/spring 14 or download\u00a0UConn Magazine’s free app\u00a0for tablet devices. It was 1933 when UConn students so insightfully designated the husky as the symbol of strength, grit, and resolve that has come to define the true spirit of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[49],"class_list":["post-91378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 06:31:35","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91378"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93516,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91378\/revisions\/93516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91378"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=91378"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=91378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}