Jennifer Zamudio
Share Your Story
As the first person in my family to ever graduate college, I would have never imagined that I’d be pursuing a doctoral degree. As a freshman at my undergraduate institution, I had no idea what research was when I joined UROP out of financial necessity, but it laid the foundation for me to build upon in the years that followed and I learned that I absolutely loved research and loved to mentor others. Now as a graduate student, I do my best to continue paying it forward to break barriers in access to research and demystifying graduate school, especially within minoritized student populations. I help lead the Rackham Aspiring Fellows program at University of Michigan to increase the accessibility of research by supporting undergraduate student advancement in the research pipeline. I wouldn’t be where I am today without my dedicated mentors along the way, and I aspire to have a similar impact in the lives of our future generation of scholars.
Your advice for other First-Gen students
The best way to figure out what it is that you’re interested in is to try new things! The worst that can happen is you end up not liking something, but now you’ve learned a little bit more about yourself.