Author’s note: Some quotes are paraphrased or lightly edited from the original recorded interview. The recorded interview will be provided with a voice over and transcript when it becomes available.
Raised in a family with healthcare professionals, Yasmine Lee fell in love with science that led her to study biomedical sciences with a minor in exercise science. If it were not for her aunt, she would not have discovered her passion in exercise science.
“My family inspired me. My grandmother was a nurse. My grandfather was an engineer in the army…I grew up becoming an athlete and got involved in sports training. I wanted to get involved with science specifically. I just wanted to get into science.”
In order to realize Yasmine’s dream, she had to navigate through the barriers of succeeding in her academic career. Struggling and succeeding in college is like a two-sided coin that allowed her to become accustomed to the challenging landscape as a BIPOC student. She may have lost the opportunity to take a chemistry class in high school for her foundation in gaining the knowledge of science. Having that knowledge could have been her greatest asset in college, but that didn’t stop her from trying again because science happened to be her favorite subject.
Yasmine never had a mentor, but she owed her thanks to her aunt for being her greatest supporter in walking her through her academic journey. If she were to look for a mentor as her new role model, she would love to see some hard work that gives her more confidence in working with her future mentor.
Working at Deaf Hub has been a great experience because of diversity in the workplace. As a BIPOC student, Yasmine realized that she learned a lot by working with students with diverse backgrounds such as using spoken English, ASL, or even coming from an institution or public school. This experience taught her to adapt and work together as a team.
With her graduation approaching soon, Yasmine reflected on her BIPOC experience to share her advice with BIPOC students going through similar experiences: Don’t give up. It is important to keep going and it never hurts to ask for help because that’s a basic human thing to do. By asking for help, this action reaffirms that students can do it.
“First of all, I will probably say it again: Don’t give up. Be more assertive, don’t be passive...Be open-minded.”
The greatest lesson Yasmine learned during her freshman year was to be proactive that would lead to more opportunities. Some BIPOC students may have not realized that receiving advice allows them to have this opportunity in exploring their careers. For example, they might not enjoy their first choice of their major and they can have this option to change their majors any times. Not giving up and staying open-minded is Yasmine's well-thought and proficient advice to share with them.
In wrapping up the interview, Yasmine planned to take a gap year in considering public health to advance her career in health care. However, considering a career in exercise science is another option because of her training and love of sports.
