Rosa Sisneros-Jiménez

UNM-Valencia Visionary Grad, Class of 2025

Transcript

My name is Rosa Sisneros-Jimenez. In the spring, I will be graduating with an Associate of General Science. I was born and raised in Mexico, and I've been living in New Mexico for the past 17 years. I am married and I have four children from ages 15 to 7. And when I migrated to the US, I did not finish high school. So, it was always in my mind to finish high school, to make it a goal for-to being able to show my kids that education is important.

So, I found out about these high school equivalency program that UNM-Valencia offers, and I enrolled. And as I received my high school diploma, my teachers from that program encouraged me to pursue my education even further. And I enrolled in college. I always had this passion about science, especially medical sciences, and whenever I found out that UNM-Valencia can prepare you to get requisites before pursuing a degree in medicine, I decided that I wanted to give them a try, and also, something that attracted me a lot to this campus was just how it feels. That is very community based. And one of the most fulfilling things about UNM-Valencia was the friendships that I was able to make while attending college.

Because the classes are small and because of the support of professors and classmates, I think that has been one of the best things to be here. Especially because coming back to school after not being in school for 12 years, I had to get used to what it was getting, you know, back to like, going to class, doing homework. And on top of that, also managing a family and a part time job. And I came to realize that I had to be doing a lot of juggling. Something really amazing about this campus was to be able to engage in undergraduate research, and I was lucky to be part of it with my mentor, Dr. Filipczak. And having that experience, I was able to carry out experiments that you don't really get to do on other campuses. And this was like a really good experience because I was learning a lot about cancer biology and how to treat cancer. And also, I was able to build my confidence when it came to doing experiments and presenting those results.

And that's an experience that I'm really going to take with me on my next steps. Something that I could recommend for the incoming students is that build your support system. Find those people that are going to be cheering for you and stick with them. And what's next for me is that I will be applying to the medical laboratory science program at the UNM Health Sciences Center. And after I complete that program, I would like to pursue a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences. And some of the people that I would like to thank for all the support through my college journey is my partner, Martín Sisneros, my children, my mom, and also my professors and mentors, Dr. Tammi Duncan and Dr. Piotr Filipczak.