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Get the most interesting and important stories from the University of Pittsburgh.This semester, your Pittwire team searched the University high and low for outstanding graduating seniors. We found steadfast medical researchers, mentors dedicated to helping their peers and overall talented scholars.
But even for superb students, college can come with adversity, detours, uncertainty. Whether they were working an internship in a new country or completing assignments while recovering from a life-altering injury, these seniors rose to the challenge.
And Pitt was there to help them along the way: Faculty served as mentors and critical support systems. Programs like Panthers Forward helped relieve financial stressors. Collaborative campus spaces like the Global Hub, Financial Wellness Center and Center for Latin American Studies gave the scholars a place to practice real-world skills. It’s resources like these that make a top-tier 85% six-year graduation rate and 98% career outcomes rate possible at Pitt.
Read up on the six seniors, pictured above clockwise from left, before they walk in Pitt’s spring undergraduate commencement ceremony on May 4.
Joao Barichello
Joao Barichello is used to feeling out of his depth. But from learning English in his Texas middle school to fast-paced critical care internships, he’s come to treasure the challenge.
“There were moments when I doubted myself,” the biology major said. “‘What am I doing here? Do I really belong here? Am I getting in the way of the team?’ But with time, I began to develop myself. I found myself overcoming my social anxiety and just becoming the person I wanted to be.”
Mackenzie Evans
Mackenzie Evans college experience was thrown off track just before her junior year spring break, when she was hit by a car while walking through Pittsburgh’s Shadyside neighborhood. In the aftermath, the Bachelor of Arts in Social Work student not only had to learn how to walk again but had to learn to rely on her family, friends and professors.
“I knew there was no other option,” Evans said of her one-track mindset after the accident. “I had to finish school.”
Jaqui Hernandez-Martinez
A first-generation student, Jaqui Hernandez-Martinez made the decision to come to Pitt sight-unseen. Graduating with two majors, one minor and two certificates from the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences — not to mention a research award, foreign language fellowship and leadership experience in student clubs across campus — under her belt, it’s safe to say she made the right decision. After graduating, she wants to build on pathways to opportunity for Latinx families like hers.
“I think we learn so much about who we are and what we value by listening to others,” she said. “If we just take a moment to hear, to listen, to people, we can really get a different take on the world around us.”
Read Hernandez-Martinez’s story.
Michelle Kingsley
Michelle Kingsley’s road to graduation included a detour through community college, a few full-time restaurant jobs and a lot of budgeting. But when she did make it to Pitt — her dream school and her mother’s alma mater — she used her own experience of funding a majority of her educational journey to help other students manage their finances.
“As a young adult, it does feel like there’s a certain time frame where you need to have everything perfect,” the School of Business student said. “I realized, after struggling a little bit, that it’s OK to take that time.”
Erin Lancaster
Erin Lancaster, a psychology major in the Dietrich School and David C. Frederick Honors College, has advice for first-generation students like herself.
“Surround yourself with people who believe in you even when you don't believe in yourself; you do belong.”
It’s a credo she’s followed throughout her years at Pitt, which have taken her to three countries and taught her important lessons about immersive learning.
Rohit Mantena
Now halfway through the University’s eight-year BS/MD program, Dietrich School senior Rohit Mantena has already collected innovation awards, peer-reviewed publications and critical research skills from Pitt’s Cerebral Aneurysm Research Lab. He’s also learned the value of connecting with patients and working on impactful biomedical research.
The lab’s work, he said, “wasn’t something where you just publish it in a journal, and it just disappears. It was something that really sticks and has an impact.”