In her own words
Rebeca Gabrie
Growing up, my family frequently reminded me that I would be the first among them to pursue higher education—an opportunity they did not have in their home country of Honduras. I was viewed as the person who could potentially elevate our socioeconomic status by going to college and securing a stable job. My family would often say, ‘Tú vas a hacer algo en la vida’—you are going to achieve something in life. I knew I could not fall short of their expectations, but once I reached my ultimate goal of being the first in our family to get into college, I realized I wasn’t sure what I wanted to study or which career to pursue. With this in mind, I enrolled as an undecided student at the University of Pittsburgh. During my first semester, one of the courses I chose was Introduction to Psychology. Although adjusting to college life was challenging, I always looked forward to this course and was deeply engaged by topics ranging from theories to experiments. Halfway through the semester, I realized I wanted to pursue a degree in psychology. To explore my future options, I decided to engage in research to determine if it was a path I wanted to pursue as a career, and it is. Over the past three years, I have gained experience working in various labs, and I am currently applying to graduate school. Receiving this scholarship would help relieve some of my financial burden, allowing me to focus on my graduate school applications.