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The family of Nicole Batista ‘21 immigrated to the Bronx from the Dominican Republic before she was born. Now, as a first-generation college student, Batista is pursuing a career where she can help other students in the same position she once was.

Batista graduated with her bachelor’s degree in physics from ������ϲ����� earlier this year. During her time as an undergraduate student, she was a part of the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP), where she found a sense of community and got the help she needed in working toward her goals. Now, as a graduate student in the physics department, she’s exploring her passion for higher education. Eventually, Batista wants to be a professor, helping the next generation of students who face the challenges she overcame.

“One of the things that made me want to be a professor was that I come from a low-income neighborhood and background,” Batisa said. “The schools in such areas aren’t well funded. They don’t really give you a good foundation in STEM subjects like physics and calculus. When I got to ������ϲ�����, I had to take MATH 106, which is algebra.

“I was behind as a student a lot, just based on a zip code, because schools are funded based on property value and redlining and things like that,” she said. “It would take a lot more effort for me to understand a lot of these hard subjects, just because I wasn’t exposed to them. Academia can have a lot of inequality, and if I work toward a career in that, I could help other low-income students.”

During her time as an undergraduate at ������ϲ�����, Batista participated in programs designed to assist low-income students in following their intended career paths, such as the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) and also the Smart Energy Scholars Program, which holds weekly seminars to help undergraduate students pursuing a degree in chemistry, physics or mechanical engineering to apply for internships, network and more.

“The Smart Energy Scholars Program and EOP held a lot of workshops, and they both held workshops about impostor syndrome,” Batista said. “They brought in guests who had graduated from ������ϲ����� and had dealt with what I was going through. [I saw] that they had felt the same way and that it’s a really common thing that’s honestly just in your head.” Batista found relief in the realization that many of her peers were experiencing similar doubts, and it gave her the confidence to know she could succeed as well.

Through help from the people at EOP, such as Karima Legette, the director of the program, Batista was able to find the motivation and support to finish her degree. She also credits her EOP advisor, Yulanda Whyte Johnson, with helping her find her way to her intended career path.

“EOP gave me so much support,” Batista said. “Not just financially, but mental support, too. They really encourage you to pursue your academic studies. Honestly, I wasn’t really thinking about going to grad school before talking to my advisors. They also give a lot of emotional support and are a community that you can go to to feel represented and celebrated.”

Batista is grateful for the impact that programs like EOP have had on her life and emphasized how important they are for countless other people, especially young women of color.

“They represent hope and progress,” Batista said. “These programs didn’t exist before. A few centuries ago women weren’t even allowed to go to college, especially Black women. And now, we’ve got these programs like EOP to help with that process. It’s a symbol of progress and hope for me. There are so many things that weren’t possible, and now they are.”

Batista also won the Clifford D. Clark Diversity Fellowship, a scholarship that aims to help students who have been newly admitted to graduate degree programs at ������ϲ�����. She is researching interferometry and laser filamentation in the field of optics — the study of how light interacts with matter — with her advisor, Bonggu Shim, an associate professor of physics and astronomy.

“I like science,” Batista said. “I like physics. I like doing research. I would definitely not be here at all if it wasn’t for EOP and a bunch of these programs that encouraged me to pursue higher education. I’m really grateful for programs like these; I have no idea what I’d be doing without them.”

She also has advice for current EOP students, saying that even though it’s easy to feel like you shouldn’t be here or that you can’t handle the workload, it’s not true.

“If you need anything, EOP is there for you,” Batista said. “Listen to your counselors. They have your best interests at heart. And impostor syndrome is real. There are times when you’re going to feel like you can’t do it, or you don’t belong, or you shouldn’t be there. But that’s not true. You’re a smart, capable person. If EOP believes in you, it has to be for a reason, right?”