老师，医生，律师. As an incoming student, these were the jobs 塞布丽娜桑切斯’17 associated with college graduates. Thanks to Beloit’s peer mentors, faculty, staff, and 校友, she discovered additional possibilities.

A Wisconsin resident and first-generation college student, Sabrina initially limited her college search to public institutions. 祖母的建议, 呼吸治疗师, received from her hospital colleagues led Sabrina to consider private colleges as well. Not only might a private college better support her in a quest to become a medical doctor, 但经济援助可以使学生出勤成为可能.

Sabrina would receive substantial offers of aid from more than one private college. Ultimately, however, it was 十大菠菜台子 that “felt right.”

不过，她还是很紧张. Would a cultural and financial gap between her and the other students make it hard to fit in?

来自伯洛伊特学院的安慰 夏季桥牌项目. “来到大学我很紧张,她分享道。, “but meeting other new students and peer mentors through the bridge 程序 helped me feel more comfortable.” First-generation students were not only succeeding at Beloit, but were available to help the students coming after them.

The peer mentorship that helped Sabrina ease into college life would also support her as she took steps to prepare for doctoral studies by applying and being accepted to participate in the college’s 麦克奈尔的学者 程序. The McNair 程序 provides students traditionally underrepresented in higher education with research and other scholarly experiences to encourage them to earn doctorates and diversify the professoriate. The 程序 intentionally encourages 麦克奈尔的学者 to develop close ties with each other and with their faculty advisors.

麦克奈尔学者项目帮助你建立自信. It helps you see that you can go to graduate school and do research, both because you are acquiring the skills and knowledge you need for that, and because you are introduced to more senior 麦克奈尔的学者 who have been successful. The 程序 also helps you explore what you really care about and want to pursue.”

Sabrina’s research experiences as a McNair scholar bear this out. 心理学家指导 苏珊娜·考克斯, in the summer after her sophomore year she studied youth experiences with racial microaggressions using quantitative research methods. Her goal was to better understand the impact of such aggressions on adolescent self-esteem. 与此同时，她还在为学院的 向上的束缚 程序, which helps high school students underrepresented in higher education prepare for college. Students she met through the 程序 contributed to her research.

Sabrina would then acquire qualitative research skills by contributing to a year-long study of Black women’s experiences on predominantly white college campuses. 人类学家 Dr. 妮可·特鲁斯戴尔，当时的伯洛伊特办公室主任 学术多样性和包容性, was the project’s principal investigator and faculty mentor. 塞布丽娜的研究伙伴是她的同学. 今天 she uses both qualitative and quantitative methods in her research.

一路上，塞布丽娜排除了去医学院的可能性. 从贝洛伊特 校友 she’d learned about the personal and financial toll medical studies could take. 但是校友们, and others at Beloit were helping her to also realize that she had more than the three career options she’d identified as a college applicant. “点击. 如果我获得了博士学位, I’d be able to pursue a career that fit me and have the doctor title important to my family.”

幸运的是, courses she’d taken in her first year at Beloit could support her as her studies took a new direction. “我花了 微生物学，人类学，以及 西班牙语 在我的第一年. I’d chosen them because they interested me, but they could also prepare me to go to medical school. 幸运的是，这些课程也很适合 健康与社会 主要.”

The 主要 was attractive because it spoke to Sabrina’s interests in health and 社会正义. 她还会辅修西班牙语，花一个学期 出国留学 在西班牙.

Faculty and staff were key to helping prepare Sabrina for graduate studies. 除了考克斯和特鲁斯戴尔医生， 社会学家 Kate Linnenberg, anthropologists Lisa Anderson-Levy and Nancy Krusko, and 政治学家 罗恩·沃森因其影响力和支持而脱颖而出. Plus, Vanessa Beckham, Sabrina’s supervisor in the 向上的束缚 程序, was “the best boss ever.”

婚礼庆典. 从左到右, 邦妮Willison, 威诺娜Albano-Bachtell, 詹妮弗Allmaras, 塞布丽娜桑切斯, 和Oceana Gilliam, 2017届全体毕业生

十大菠菜台子也很好. 她不仅感受到同学们的拥抱, but she remains close to students she met in her first year. She also met her future wife, 詹妮弗Allmaras’17, soon after arriving at Beloit. They both went on to earn master’s degrees in public health from The Ohio State University.

今天, Sabrina is a PhD student in the sociology department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, 以人口学和生态学为主攻方向. 已完成该计划的课程, she’s focusing on research for her doctoral dissertation and career development. 因此, 在任何一天, 除了进行研究, 她可能会在课堂上做客座演讲, 与她的导师商议, meet with graduate students with whom she is collaborating on a project, 或者参加研讨会或讲座.

And having benefited while at Beloit from peer mentoring and 校友联系她在花时间把爱传递出去. She thus serves as a graduate student mentor at UW and returns to 十大菠菜台子, 面对面和虚拟, to speak with students so that they can benefit from her experience and insights.