Rebels Rising in the Real World: Mr. Ole Miss Rob Barber

Mr. Ole Miss Rob Barber is a senior from Hernando, Mississippi, who has great plans for the future and the dedication to make those plans a reality.

Photo by Marlee Crawford

“I am majoring in public policy leadership, but I am also pre-med and hoping to go to medical school once I graduate, and I want to be a psychiatrist,” Barber said.

Back in high school when Barber was looking at colleges he wanted to go far from home and was originally thinking of attending a school that was outside of Mississippi.

“I applied to a lot of different schools, but I really wanted to go out of state,” Barber said. “I wanted to leave Mississippi and go somewhere far from my parents. But I ended up getting a really good scholarship from Ole Miss and that made me take a second look. Then I got into the Honors College and I learned about what a great opportunity that was. It took me a little bit to really appreciate what was in my own backyard.”

What made Barber realize that Ole Miss was the place for him was when he attended a summer camp before his senior year of high school.

“I did Summer College for High School Students and that was when I really feel in love with Ole Miss. That was when I was like ‘wow, okay maybe it is fine that I go to school 45 minutes away from my family,” Barber said. “Now I like it; yesterday I had to go home and grab something and it was so nice that it was just right there.”

Barber is a man with a plan, and his future is looking very bright.

“Ideally, I will be applying to medical school over the summer. I am finishing up my classes right now and I will take my MCAT this summer, hopefully,” Barber said. “Then I would go to medical school for four years and do a four-year residency in psychiatry, if that stays my interest. I have shadowed some other interests that I really like, but we will see what ends up happening with that.”

His favorite moment of Ole Miss was when the Rebels defeated the Alabama Tide and the entire stadium rushed the field.

“I know that sounds so cliché, but to me it was more than just that moment in and of itself as great as that was,” Barber said. “My freshman year we had only won two games, and no one went to the games and no one was excited to be there. I think it mirrored that not only has our football team grown and our football program, but also so many other things that I have gotten to see happen at Ole Miss during my time here.

“It has been a privilege of being with so many other people who have impacted the school so much, and getting to serve along side them. It was all right there in that moment for me.”

Ole Miss teaches its students many valuable lessons both inside and outside the classroom. One thing that Barber will take was from Ole Miss is the will to keep going regardless of difficulties.

“It takes that extra leap of confidence to put yourself out there for something that you might have to apply for and that you might get rejected from. That happened to me all freshman year and I would go back and think what is wrong with me, I’ve got some major flaw I need to figure out and fix. I think that is one thing that Ole Miss has taught me which is to persevere though things that seem hard. If you are confronted with a setback to not just abandon the pursuit entirely. I think that applies to more than just my personal life, I think that I have gotten to see that in a lot of things that have happened on campus. For example, when the Ole Miss community encounters set backs it always comes together,” Barber said.

There are many aspects of Ole Miss that students say they will miss most about the school. But when asked this, the first thing Barber said was the people.

“The people are the best part absolutely. People talk about the Ole Miss experience all the time. But I think it’s not even the opportunities or the organizations. As much as people want to say, ‘it’s the Grove’ or say, ‘Our campus is so pretty’ or ‘Oxford has great restaurants’, it’s the people. It’s the Ole Miss family that makes the Ole Miss experience. When I think about Ole Miss, I will think of all that (the Grove, campus, and Oxford) but I think about it second to the people.”

The advice that Barber would give to his freshman self is that “it all works out in the end.” He laughingly explained, “College is a lot less scary as it seems when you first step foot on campus. I remember when my mom pulled away and both of my parents were crying, and they were leaving me behind and I started to think ‘they are leaving me alone’. I went to my room and shut my door and my roommate wasn’t there yet and I just sat on the floor because I didn’t know what to do. I was frozen with ‘what happens now.’”

This semester of Barber’s senior year he will be spending with friends and fundraising for his and Miss Ole Miss’s philanthropy.

“We are in the beginning stages of fundraising for our philanthropy. It is going to be a trail at a park, like a fitness trail, that will help little kids learn how to read along the trail, because literacy in Lafayette County can always be better. I am taking the rest of my pre-med classes and even though I am taking a fifth year so many of my friends are leaving so I am trying to enjoy that last bit of time with them before we go our separate ways. It feels like everything is going to change next year even though I’ll still be here,” Barber said.

Even though Barber will still be on campus for another year, he will leave behind him a legacy. Many of the Ole Miss family will miss him when he moves on to a new chapter in his life.

Molly Brosier is a HottyToddy.com staff reporter and can be reached at mebrosie@go.olemiss.edu.