Tennessee Couple Establishes College Of Education Scholarship In Daughter’s Honor

Growing up in Franklin, Tennessee, Sydney Robbins’ parents claim there isn’t a time they can recall when their daughter didn’t want to be a teacher.

“Even as a young child, she had a little school room set up in our bonus room. Her older brother, any of his friends, family, and anyone she could drag up there were her students,” said her father, Mark. “As she got older the school room upstairs got more and more sophisticated with easels and cubbies. That was always her thing.”

As Sydney got older, her parents even tried to talk to her about exploring other careers to make sure she was aware of her options. However, every career aptitude test she took in high school came back stating that she should be a teacher.

“It was her passion,” her mother, Lisa, added.

Not only did Sydney have a heart for teaching, she had a heart for helping others. 

“Some of the stories that we’re hearing about her are about little things. She did acts of kindness, and it almost seemed that the more someone was at a disadvantage in one way or another, the more she tried to reach out. That was always just something that was so special about her,” explained Mark.

That helpful spirit was what led her to fine-tune her future career and earn her bachelor’s degree in educational psychology with a minor in speech therapy. The next step was to get into graduate school and become a speech therapist.

Like every young person, Sydney knew she needed to find out who she was, and college was the best place to start. While she could continue at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Sydney, like so many who grow up near a university, felt that all of her classmates were going to UT. She knew she wanted a different experience, one where the only person she knew when she stepped on campus for the first time was herself. First, however, she wanted to make sure her parents supported her decision.

“She came to us when she was in high school and asked, ‘Are you going to be mad at me if I don’t want to go to UT?’ We told her absolutely not,” Lisa said.

Sydney began her college search, looking at both Mississippi State and the University of Mississippi, and ultimately deciding she wanted to be a Bulldog.

“We had great comfort knowing that she was at Mississippi State,” said Mark. “Bad things can happen anywhere, of course, but we just always had a sense of security about Starkville.

According to her parents, Sydney loved every minute at Mississippi State. She was a member of Chi Omega, making friends there and outside the Greek system. Mark and Lisa knew their daughter was brave to choose a college four and a half hours away from anyone she knew, but they put their worries aside and encouraged her to reach for whatever she wanted in life.

Oftentimes, though, they were concerned for Sydney’s health. When she was two years old, she was diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis, a serious syndrome that results from a rapid breakdown of muscle tissue.

After moving Sydney to MSU in 2014, her mother said, “It was very hard for me, especially, to get in the car and roll away. I worried greatly about her, but in that next breath, I also wanted her to be able to experience the things my husband and I had experienced,” explained Lisa. “She had a great drive and determination to go to school, get an education, make friends and be in a sorority. I had to let her go and do that. There was no way I could put her in a bubble.”

Even with rhabdomyolysis, Sydney lived big. She was a competitive cheerleader throughout her school days, cheering at football games and competitions. Both her mother and father agree that she was wise beyond her years. She never wanted anyone to treat her like she was fragile or let her condition get in the way of living her life, a life that included traveling to Africa on a mission trip.

“She came to us and said, ‘I’m going to go to Africa. I flipped out and said, ‘Oh no, you’re not,’” said Lisa, recalling the memory. “But she was determined to go, and she wore us down.”

To experience episodes of rhabdomyolysis, a person needs to be born with the genetic predisposition that sits dormant until something triggers the first episode. A person could go a lifetime and never experience a trigger, but it can happen at any time, at any age. For most with the syndrome’s genetic predisposition, exercise or a muscle trauma experienced in an accident is usually the cause for rhabdomyolysis. In Sydney’s case, however, doctors couldn’t pinpoint what caused hers. They began at the age of two and a half, and until she was five and a half she had only four incidents. Then it took 16 years, December of 2016, for a flareup to occur with another one following in the fall of 2018. That episode was so severe it proved too much for her heart, and on Oct. 28, 2018, Sydney Elizabeth Robbins died.

Earlier that year after graduation from MSU, she went to work at Poplar Grove Middle School in her hometown where she was an aide to a student with autism. The student, who was also non-verbal, immediately connected with Sydney, a personal confirmation that being employed in a school system and working with students who have special needs was what she was meant to do.

Even after her death, Sydney’s spirit still shines. During her memorial service, her parents asked friends and family to write on cards their favorite memories of Sydney. While they haven’t yet read them all, many were written by the friends she made at Mississippi State who shared a similar memory: one of Sydney coming up to them and introducing herself with a simple “My name is Sydney Robbins. I don’t know anyone here. Do you want to be my friend?” Several of the cards began with how beautiful and meaningful Sydney’s friendship was.

That simple question earned Sydney countless friends in her sorority, Chi Omega, and beyond. Stories like these only confirmed what Mark and Lisa already knew about their daughter—that she was kind and funny, went out of her way to help others, and that she blazed her own trail even if it might have seemed frightening at the time. Also, they knew she would be remembered by many, many people.

Recently, Mark and Lisa attended the wedding of one of Sydney’s closest college friends. Throughout the weekend, Sydney’s friends honored her in numerous ways—hanging up her bridesmaid’s dress in the bride’s dressing room and the bride walking down the aisle carrying two bouquets, the bridal one with a small picture and charm of Sydney’s and one meant for Sydney to carry that was presented by the bride to Lisa. At the rehearsal dinner while a microphone was passed around, it was clear that the bridal party missed her.

“We had just such a great opportunity to really have quality conversations with so many of Sydney’s friends that we were unable to have at the time in October or early November,” explained Mark. “There were some tears and it was hard, but it was wonderful as well. It was almost like another visitation but this time it was a happy, fun event. We were so impressed with the group of friends that she had and their parents.”

After her death, someone presented the idea of setting up a GoFundMe account for the family. At first, the Robbins weren’t entirely comfortable with the idea, but after talking to some close friends they agreed, realizing that so many people wanted to reach out and do something to express their love for Sydney.  As the weeks went by the account grew rapidly, and Mark and Lisa knew they needed to decide what to do with the money that would honor Sydney.

 “Sydney would be thrilled that this money would be to help people,” said Mark.

Sydney’s scholarship will be available for students in the College of Education, but will not have the restriction of being only for in-state or out-of-state students. For students to receive the scholarship, they must have some financial need. The Robbins’ hope is that it will be finalized and available to students this fall semester. At the end of each year, a portion of the money the scholarship earns will go back into the principal so more students will receive it as it grows. This means that as the years go by, more and more students can earn a degree and help the world—even if it’s just a small corner of it. It’s what Sydney did and hoped others would do.

Her mother remembered, “Her pediatrician told me, ‘You’ve got to let Sydney live her life.’”

And she did. As short as her life was Sydney lived it to the fullest, and thanks in part to the scholarship that bears her name, a piece of that life will live on forever at Mississippi State.