Chicago native Kyla Jimenez has always known she wants to be a doctor. She and her older brother (Isaaq, AB’23) took part in the Collegiate Scholars program during high school, which supports Chicago Public Schools students to apply to and succeed at highly selective colleges and universities. While she technically followed her brother to UChicago, she’s making this experience her own—majoring in biology on a pre-med track.
Why UChicago?
My mom and I would bring my brother to campus when he participated in Collegiate Scholars enrichment events. I was in fifth, sixth grade, and we would sit in the hospital coffee shop and I would do my homework while we waited for him. I always knew I wanted to be a doctor, but this was the first time that I saw all different people in the medical field—nurses, surgeons, other professionals—and people who looked like me, too. I'd never seen somebody that looks like me wearing scrubs, or having surgical attire on. It inspired me to want to be academically challenged, even a little competitive when it came to my studies.
Then I was given the opportunity to participate in the Collegiate Scholars program. I had the unique opportunity to participate in UChicago-style classes, with peers in the same grade level, taught by professors while earning a transcript to show my progress throughout my three years in the program. That experience is very reflective of what I am currently experiencing as an undergraduate student here in the College, but now it is actively in tandem with my future here at UChicago.
My brother ended up attending UChicago, and I was a little skeptical about following in his footsteps. I thought that I may want something different. My family and I went on a big college tour extravaganza, where I saw almost all of the colleges on my list, right in October. After reflecting on it, no place felt like UChicago. None of the colleges I saw had the same, homey feeling. I’m from Chicago, I know people here, my brother went here, everything was just kind of tied up in a little bow.
So when I was accepted and offered a spot in the class of 2027, I said yes!
What is an experience that stands out during your time here?
I am part of the inaugural cohort of a new program meant to support diversity in STEM fields, the Phoenix STEM program (which starts with a two-week pre-orientation course). Some of my best friends as of now have come from that program. These friends have made UChicago feel like my own experience, instead of knowing it as an outsider. I understand now what college life is like—being able to study with your friends super late or struggling together on p-sets. My friends have definitely made my experience so far for sure.
I’ve also realized how much I relate to my peers and how there are people like me who are here. There are first-generation students that come from low-income backgrounds, that are super diverse, but also want to be doctors and want to be engineers and all these things.