I felt swallowed at the bigger college I first attended and didn’t have the time and space to dive into material in class and pick my professors’ brains. I transferred to Nazareth because I wanted a cozier school with a less rambunctious social atmosphere — without sacrificing prestige and great facilities.

At a Naz reception at Oak Hill Country Club for #NazBound students.

In particular, I knew I would need letters of recommendation to get into medical school, and I was looking for a

In a class at Nazareth.

college where the professors would get to know me as a student, a worker, a person, and a friend. Here classes average 18 students, and every professor I’ve had so far knows my name and greets me in the hallway. One time I had a Spanish grammar class with only 5 students and my professor took us out to lunch before our final exam. I know the research all my professors have done and I feel comfortable asking any of them about their career pathways, class content, or generally how they’re doing any day of the week. Right now I’m figuring out who I need letters of recommendation from and the hardest part is limiting myself to two science professors.

During my second semester, my Spanish Professor Hilda Chacón brought our advanced grammar class out to lunch before our final exam

I was also in search of somewhere that I could pursue all of my interests, like dance and Spanish, alongside a strong STEM backbone. Naz provides all of these opportunities to me. I am majoring in toxicology and

I’m a lab prep assistant in the Biology Department. This is me holding our Chilean rose hair tarantula, Charlotte.

biomedical sciences, with minors in Spanish and dance. I am the vice president of the pre-health club and racquetball club on campus, and whenever I find another club that catches my eye I can jump right in. For example, I built a gaming PC in the campus Makerspace for the new Esports club. My college experience feels intensely personalized here. I feel free to choose and explore in all aspects of my life at Naz.

Dance conference.

Having a biomedical sciences major keeps me on track to fulfill the required coursework in preparation for the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT), and toxicology gives me coursework that dives further into the details of biological systems and what happens when those systems are interrupted. Spanish classes pull my head out of the labs and keep me culturally educated, as well as opening doors for service and international travel. I’ve spent a summer in Chile and a week in Costa Rica so far, and have done service in my community with LatinX populations. Dance keeps me sane amongst all the textbooks and sitting, and lets me have a focused creative and physical outlet, as well as introducing me to a litany of unique professors, pedagogies, and performances.

With surgeons I shadowed in Chile. I spent a month shadowing surgeons in Los Ángeles, Chile. These are my surgeon friends on the last day of my shadowing experience.

Naz’s ample opportunities to travel the world have enabled me to pursue my interests and passions further. During my summer in Chile, I shadowed medical doctors in a hospital and assisted with English classes in the afternoons (with fellow Nazareth student Meredith Rasey). This past January, I joined 11 Naz students and 2 faculty for a week in Costa Rica through Naz Alternative Breaks. We worked on a women-owned,  sustainability-focused medicinal garden, and on our days off we toured indigenous communities and learned about their history. We were shown an agroforest which is essentially a farm spread sporadically through a rainforest. We learned more about the tree-to-table process for foods like bananas, chocolate, and coffee, and about the people that live and have lived in Costa Rica, and injustices they’ve endured. These trips were made possible for                                                                                         me with my SPARK grant and Nazareth’s Alt Breaks funding.

I have never felt underserved as a transfer student. I have not been left behind or treated as a second thought in registration, housing, academics, or anything else. We even have a transfer appreciation week, when there are exclusive events and giveaways (and massages!) for all of us transfer students. 

White-water rafting during study abroad in Chile.

My transition into Naz was spectacularly smooth, so much so that I work for Transfer Admissions now to share how wonderful the change was for me, and to guide others through the inevitable confusion that comes with packing up and starting over. I cannot stress this enough: When I transferred to Naz, every time I expected to have to fight for myself against paperwork or administration, I was instead supported and guided to where I wanted to be.