The dual enrollment program I participated in while in high school completely changed the trajectory of my education journey. I was a sophomore in high school when I started taking general education college courses, and it was the first time that the idea of going to college seemed attainable to me. I don’t think I had given the idea of going to college much thought prior to that. When I graduated high school a few years later, in 2015, I knew I didn’t want to stop with a four-year degree.

One way the dual enrollment experience affects me today is through my ability to be extremely resourceful and independent — for example, in finding scholarships and learning to navigate complex admissions processes. These skills only further developed when I was in college and graduate school.

There were many difficult decisions I had to make during my college journey, but one that sticks out at the moment — perhaps because I was just on the academic job market and the experiences were surprisingly similar in many ways — was figuring out where I wanted to go for my graduate training.

I am originally from California, and I really wanted to go to a graduate school in my home state. However, when I received news that I was accepted to the University of Iowa’s (UI) prestigious Measurement and Statistics program and was awarded the ACT Scholars Fellowship, I knew I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

The decision to attend UI was the best decision I could have made for my education journey. At UI, I had the opportunity to engage in cutting-edge research, attend and present my research at several national conferences, pursue additional educational experiences like a second master’s degree, and I got to work with the best mentors and colleagues, all of which undoubtedly helped me land a tenure-track faculty job. It’s hard to tell if I could have experienced all these things had I gone to school somewhere else.

The fee waiver made it possible for me to take the ACT test and share my scores with as many colleges as I could. This helped me become a competitive college applicant and win scholarships, which I’m sure played a role when I was applying for graduate school.

While at UI, I became increasingly interested in developing statistical and psychometric methods that could be used to address questions about human behavior and psychological processes and phenomena beyond those primarily of interest in educational testing. As a result, I work on a variety of diverse projects, some of which were technical in nature, such as my dissertation, and others that were more substantive in focus.

I also really enjoy teaching and working with students, and I wanted a career where I could also be an advisor to students pursuing a career in quantitative methods.

All these interests made it increasingly clear that an academic career, specifically as a faculty member, was what I wanted to do upon graduation from my doctoral program.

One aspect of becoming a faculty member I am very excited about is establishing my own independent research program on Bayesian latent variable modeling and working with students on a variety of topics related to this research area. I hope to inspire my students to pursue their postsecondary endeavors by making mentorship a priority at Fordham University and taking what I have learned about mentorship through my experiences as both a mentor and mentee through programs I participated in while at UI.

In particular, I plan to actively reach out and encourage students to join my research lab, provide personalized mentorship to students as they establish their own professional goals and agendas, provide a platform for students to explore topics they find interesting, and verbally express my confidence in my students’ abilities in very much the same way my mentors did to me during pivotal moments of my education journey.

I really value the networks and relationships I built during my academic journey. Many of my closest friends are individuals I met through such networks, and it opened up many possibilities I did not think were possible. For example, a few years ago, I was an intern at the American Board of Internal Medicine and the Center for Measurement Justice. I learned about these opportunities through the networks I built and nurtured over the years.

I was extremely fortunate not to experience some of the challenges commonly faced by first-generation students, and a big part of the reason is my participation in the dual enrollment program, which mitigated many of the challenges I would have likely faced otherwise.

One major challenge I did face, however, was difficulty seeking help and advice from professors, counselors, and others when I needed it because I always felt that it was something that I needed to figure out on my own. It’s something that I still struggle with from time to time, but I’ve gotten much better at it.

I would strongly encourage ACT Scholars to leverage all the resources provided through the ACT Scholars program, to pursue the research they are passionate about, and to make a concerted effort to form lasting relationships and connections with people in industry and academia. One of the greatest gifts the ACT Scholars program provided me was the opportunity to do all of these things, and I don’t think I would have gotten to where I am today if it weren’t for the support I received as an ACT Scholar.