Stacy Went to College After 20 Years To Be A Role Model For Her Daughter
Stacy Okada, Goldwater Scholar and UMass Boston Alum
Stacy Okada, a Goldwater Scholar graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from UMass Boston.
Off to College
As her daughter was getting ready for kindergarten, Stacy and her husband started impressing upon her the value of college education.
Stacy felt like a hypocrite.
20 years before, when Stacy was in high school, she had struggled with addiction and had run away from home several times. While she had liked Science, she couldn’t get it all together to go to college.
She had gone into real estate and was also a chef. She was doing well.
But Stacy felt she needed a degree to be able to preach about the value of college to her daughter.
She enrolled at MassBay Community College.
The Transition
Stacy found the going tough in college.
She had just had a second child before starting school.
She looked after the little kids during the day and went to college in the evening. Her husband worked during the day, and took care of the family in the evening.
In classes, she felt she had forgotten how to study. Algebra was foggy.
She struggled to prep for the classes. She didn’t read the class material and wasn’t ready with questions at the end of the class.
The Mentor
Fortunately she found an amazing mentor in Dr. Bruce Jackson, the Head of the BioTech Department. On the first day of class he took her under his wing.
Stacy had planned on being a part-time student. But Dr. Jackson made her a full-time student.
He opened the world of undergraduate research. Her first research was extracting DNA from ancient human bone.
She just wanted to get an Associate’s degree and graduate. Dr. Jackson challenged her to be a researcher and suggested she go to graduate school.
He also introduced her to a number of scholarships including the Goldwater Scholarship.
The Degree & Beyond
Stacy received the Goldwater Scholarship for research she did at Boston University one summer.
She transferred to the 4-year program at UMass Boston and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry.
Stacy is now a BioTech researcher at a startup!
And yes, she can now look her children in the eye and talk about the value of college education!
Stacy joins our podcast to share her undergraduate experiences, UG Research experiences at MassBay Community College and UMass Boston, and winning the Goldwater Scholarship.
Hi5s from Stacy’s Podcast are:
The 20-Year Gap
Transition to MassBay Community College
Introduction to Research
Goldwater Scholarship
Advice for High Schoolers
Listen to Hi5s. Podcast Highlights with Stacy Okada of UMass Boston. (2.5-Minute Listen).
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We will take a break next week. The next Newsletter will be on December 4, 2022.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Venkat