Jasmine joining a sorority her first year basically went on to pave her pathway through college. It taught her many life lessons, introduced her to some very inspirational people, and was the beginning of her journey to become SGA president.

Part 1 is here.

Transcription

Kamila
Hey college kids. Welcome back to my podcast. Who cares about college? This is part two of my interview with Jasmine so check out part one if you have not done so already, subscribe and enjoy

good so okay, you are you said yes to University of Houston. So now tell me about an okay, this is actually weird. You live in you live near University of Houston. But you only visited the first time you went was the first day of school?

Jasmine
Yes. So I mean, it was like a week or two before school started because I ended up. I actually ended up living on campus that year, because I just really wanted to have the experience of living on campus. And then hurricane Harvey happened and destroyed our house. So I literally would not have had a place to stay if I hadn’t decided to move into the dorms for that semester. So I ended up living on campus for one year, before I decided to commute to save money, of course. But I got really lucky. I had gone maybe once you have age, as when I was in middle school, I had like a debate tournament at UVA age. And so I had seen it like one other time when I was in middle school, but I never really taught anything High School wise. I just I just decided to go for it.

Kamila
Oh, so our I mean, I know hurricanes are becoming a more increasing issue. And there’s like a record number right now. So was that like a problem throughout college for you? I mean, it’s not really college related. But that’s kind of interesting. Did it just happen like every year or something?

Jasmine
Um, so hurricane Harvey happened, my happened my freshman year of college. And that was like, Well, that was a huge disruption to the whole college experience. My last four years. I’m a senior in college now. So my last four years at this, this university have been very interesting, a pandemic, a hurricane. Houston had pretty severe flooding another one of those years. Just all sorts of things have happened in the last four years. So I would say definitely, it’s been an interesting four years and the weather and just things that are out of our control. Nature has just wreaked havoc on everyday college live.

Kamila
A lot of has oh my god, Hurricane Harvey. Well, okay, you said you wanted to just at least stay in the dorms for your freshman year, which ended up being a good choice, you want to stay in the dorms, freshman year for that college experience. So were you satisfied by the end of your freshman year?

Jasmine
I would say so definitely. I wish I would have been able to stay on campus every single year. I definitely think that living on campus is a really great experience. It just it’s a really great experience. It’s easy. You know, you can just be at the library all day, if you want and can be at home all day, you can wake up like 10 minutes before your class starts and still gets a class on time. It’s it’s a really nice experience. And it’s really I think the relationship with your parents will improve with you not being there all the time. I think it gives you a sense of what you are like living with other people. I’m I’m an only child. So for me, it was it was really interesting to see how I would live and coexist with our roommate. Spoiler alert. We hated each other by the end of that year. But I’m sure there’s no hard feelings. Now. It’s been a long time. But I know it’s the you have that first experience of knowing what it’s going to be like to live with somebody because most of us are going to live with roommates for a very long time. So it was a really good introductory experience to that. And it just it makes you feel a sense of school spirit and makes you feel closer to the campus. And you start to kind of become who you’re going to be as an individual away from your parents. So I think it was a great experience.

Kamila
Oh, what is this? I see this trend all the time. Everybody keeps telling me freshman year roommates are the worst. What is it about your freshman year roommate.

Jasmine
I truly think that it has to do with both of I think has to do with maturity level I think it has to do with this is the first time that people are living outside of what they’re used to. And so it takes a lot of compromise. And I think a lot of people don’t really know how to navigate that kind of compromise and I will say there is one fight that you can not get over. No matter how hard you try. If you and your roommate don’t agree on the AC temperature in dorm, you are not going to like each other for the rest of the year. It’s one of those things that everybody I’ve talked to who like hated their freshman year, roommate all starts from the AC. It’s all about that you if you have somebody who likes it cold if you like it cold you’re in the clear. That’s the best case scenario and if you’re somebody who for some reason wants to sleep at 80 degrees, then any find somebody else who also wants to crazily do then I think you’ll be in the clear. But yeah, it’s I think it really is that it’s the AC thing. It’s out of your comfort zone. It’s the compromise maturity that a lot of people just don’t have when they’re 18 years old.

Kamila
And that’s, that’s okay. That’s nice. And also what comes at least with the students I’ve interviewed before, they said what comes with their with them hating their first year dorm mate. They also feel like, I guess it’s kind of different for you, because you’re a commuter student, and you have your parents at least right there for you. But a lot of people feel lonely their freshman year, it could be that roommate thing, like, Oh, I’m not friends with this person. So I’m not gonna be friends with anyone. So did you feel that? Did you ever like, Oh, my God, it was like a very bad time for you? Or was it still okay for you.

Jasmine
Um, so I am like a, I would say I’m like an introverted extrovert. So I need to be around people. Well, I, but I’m not always very social with people. So for me, like, I don’t think I ever really felt lonely. I think I always had a good community of people around me, I had some people come to my college that I had been friends with in middle school. So I ended up paying, I was lucky in that way that I already had some people that were established friends of mine, that I could kind of develop those relationships a little bit more. So I had, I had that going for me, I also just made friends with whoever sat next to me and like my class, that’s what I would do, I would just talk to them, ask them something. And hopefully, they would be open enough to want to talk to me as well. I also ended up joining a lot of different organizations, I joined a sorority my freshman year, so I had that community as well. So honestly, like I don’t, I don’t really think I felt very lonely. When I first joined college, but I think it was because I really made an effort to, to kind of be a little bit more social. Because in high school, I would say I was very lonely in high school, and I didn’t really have a sense of community in high school. So when I, when I came to college, you know, it’s the time to reinvent yourself become who you’re going to become. And back then I thought that I was going to become I was going to become by you know, joining a sorority and just being friends with a bunch of people. That didn’t come till much later, really were discovering who I was going to be. And what I was about didn’t come till much, much later in the college experience. But for my freshman year, I felt good because I got involved. And that’s the that’s the best thing that you can do. That’s how you figure out what works for you. What doesn’t, what kind of people you want to be around what kind of people you don’t want to be around. You really figure that out by joining organizations and just getting to know people.

Kamila
And one thing I want to ask you about your sorority but one thing before that. I when I interviewed this one girl, she also went to university in Texas, I believe it was University of Texas at San Antonio. And she had the option of living a dorm life with a dorm mate or dorm mates for orientation week and you know, eating out of the dining hall having that true college experience before college actually started. And she said it was she didn’t like it at all like something about just the small dorms. The food she said wasn’t good and stuff. So was it like that for you? Or did you find that part of the experience like you like? Yeah, part of the experience? Basically,

Jasmine
no, I loved all of that. I loved eating like terrible dining hall food. Like, I think it just for me, like I was just very grateful to be a part of it to be a part of like this college experience to have a college experience. I knew it was very different from what my parents had gone through. My dad was an international student, and he was, you know, much older than me when he started college, and he was working a full time job. So I felt very grateful to be in the situation that I was in. And because of that I just didn’t really feel the need to like be upset about any of the little things. But I definitely had that I had friends who were like that, who were just, they missed their home cooking, they miss their mom’s meals. They didn’t really like the experience of living on campus because they just liked what they were used to better. And for me, I just I really liked the new experience a new a change of pace. I’ve always I think I’ve always kind of been like that. Like I’m just one of those people who likes new things, likes new experiences. I feel like there’s always something to learn from a new experience. So for me, I tried not to get too caught up in you know, this is different from what I know, I was not that it was different.

Kamila
It was good. Okay, let’s move on to the sorority house. So you joined a sorority house. I know a lot of people you know, at least try out Greek life. And how did that sorority end up going for you? Did you I don’t know if you can drop out of sorority but did you find that it wasn’t for you? Or did you end up making some like your best friends so how did that happen? What did it teach you?

Jasmine
This is this is an interesting one. Um, so I did join my freshman year and I’m still in it now and I think I’m going to graduate the sorority or finish it and you can drop the authorities if you do decide to do that. I would say that it was it was a learning experience. I learned that I wasn’t for me, I’m still in it, honestly, because I just came so far. And at this point, you know, I think they they’re happy that the student body presidents and their sorority so they let me kind of get away with not doing too much so for them anyway but I just I learned that it wasn’t really for me I do. I, I do appreciate the experience that I got from it. I think it’s I’m, like I said before, I’m an only child, I wanted to be exposed to an organization that was kind of based on sisterhood. I just realized that that just wasn’t the lifestyle of Greek life just wasn’t for me, I wasn’t really interested in the same things that some of my sorority girl my sorority sisters were interested in. We didn’t have similar majors. We didn’t have I just I didn’t feel very inspired by by too many of my of the sisters that I had, in my pledge class particularly was just into different things. I was really the best part of my of my Greek life experience was getting like they they do like a big sister, little sister thing. So I am, I was paired with my big sister and I learned a lot from her. She I was a freshman and she was a senior. And her you know, she was a super senior like she was graduating a semester after the four years. So I learned so much for her, she ended up moving to a different state. No job prospects, like no real plan, she just up and moved because she just wasn’t happy in our city anymore. And she did moving to Denver by herself, all by herself. And just as That’s so scary, and like crazy to most people, like how did she manage that now she’s very successful. She lives in the most beautiful place in downtown Denver. She’s doing really well for herself. She is a self sufficient, self sustaining individual. And that was just so inspiring to me. And I you know, she was always really independent. I really admired that about her and I was able to learn a lot from her. Because you know, of the big sister Little Sister experience. She also had another little if if somebody has two littles we’ve called them twins. So my twin, my twin is an extremely successful photographer. So she applied to nursing school, she had great GPA in college, you know, great extracurriculars. She applies to nursing school, she gets into her top nursing school, and then she just drops out of college and becomes a full time photographer, and is doing incredibly well in the photography business. incredibly well, she took that risk of you know, she wanted to follow her passion drop out of college, and just follow that small business. And she did that. And she is doing so well for herself. I, I’m just, I’m in all because, you know, she’s an she’s an artist. And she really, she took that risk to pursue her dream. And it, it paid off for her. And she’s somebody else that I look up to that I admire for her, you know, her risk taking. She’s just another very independent woman who did so much for herself. But like I said, again, very different from the path that I’m going to take, you know, I ended up becoming a student body president and I’m a pre med and I hope to go to medical school and I have all these other other types of dreams. But it was the best part about Greek life was being exposed to people that were so different for me, that were that still had some of those qualities that I think that you know, we should all strive to have, you know, that independence, that tenacity to do something that’s out of your comfort zone for your happiness in the long run. I think that’s those were very admirable things that I wouldn’t have been exposed to had it not been for my sorority and, and my own little, she’s a nursing major, and she is doing so well for herself. She’s applying to nursing school right now great GPA, great extracurriculars, president of her of her Nursing org. So there’s just a lot, there’s a lot that women can learn from other women. And I think that Greek life gave me the opportunity to do that to be exposed to many different types of women, and be able to learn from their best qualities.

Kamila
And you that’s amazing that that’s probably the highlight of Greek life for you. But what about Greek life? Would you recommend for people if like to watch out for is it the I don’t know much about Greek life? Forgive me, but is it like the partying or just the vibe you get from Greek life? So what is it about Greek life that kind of made you?

Jasmine
Um, Greek life is I don’t know how it is at other schools. I think that this might be similar Greek life is its own little bubble at some at some universities. It is that like mine, it’s its own little bubble. And people in Greek life, they care about Greek life, and they they do things in Greek life, and that’s it, like their leadership positions in Greek life, like there are places that you can grow and become leaders. I myself, I was in the Panhellenic. So that the Panhellenic See, I guess, like the organization that oversees like all of the sororities that are under Panhellenic. It’s a council. I was in that exact I was able to kind of get leadership positions within within Greek life but I When it comes to the leadership aspect, at least, you know, I just I didn’t really feel like I was making a difference. And I felt like because Greek life is kind of rooted in tradition, I couldn’t really make any changes that I wanted to make, I couldn’t really make the difference that I was looking to make on campus. So from a leadership perspective, I just feel like Greek life didn’t really have the opportunities that I was looking for, to make real changes. And I would say something else to look out for is just, there is a party culture, you know, there, there definitely is, and whether you’re in Greek life or not, honestly, like, most people are going to go through some sort of party phase in college, Greek life is a great way to kind of get introduced to that. But for me like that, that got old, very, very quickly, I got over the big nonfat, like, this isn’t even a thing anymore because of COVID. But I mean, at the time of my freshman year, I got over the big freshmen, like frat parties, then all of that very quickly. It’s fun, though. I mean, that stuff is certainly like fun. For your first year of college, second year of college, but you start to realize that there’s some people in Greek life who stay there for so long, and they never branch out of that. It never becomes like the big parties turn into just kick backs with your friends. Like it just, you know, that constant partying over like a very long period of time is just it gets old very quickly. It’s not good for you. And it’s it’s just, you don’t want to get stuck in a rut of you know, after four years, all you’ve done is really party and know like, what’s the point of that?

Kamila
And you do know people like that who have who are seniors like you, and they’ve been just partying the whole time. Yeah,

Jasmine
definitely. There’s honestly, there’s so many and you know, I think at other schools, like, you’ll see the same thing, there just are a lot of people who, that’s really what they ended up doing. And like I said, like, I don’t I think that, you know, in high school, there was like a big stigma around like partying in college and all that. It’s okay to party, it’s absolutely great. Like, you’ll make some amazing memories, partying with your friends, going to parties, going to frat parties even going to kick backs with your friends, like, that’s a big and important part of a college experience. But it should just be apart, it shouldn’t be your college experience, your college experience should be about so much more than just going out and maybe drinking and experimenting in that way. It should be a part but it’s not supposed to be your entire college experience.

Kamila
So you’ve seen like both the good and the bad of Greek life, are you planning on dropping out of medical school to pursue something completely different as well?

Jasmine
Um, no, I don’t Well, I don’t know. It’s no to the dropping out of medical school to pursue, you know, something different. For me, I this is something that a lot of people aren’t like, but I’m a very like, multifaceted person. And that’s something that I’ve realized and embraced about myself, I have many different passions, I love medicine for for my career, I want to be a doctor one day, I hope to have my own private practice and also get my, my degree to be a therapist as well. And so I can be a primary care physician and a therapist and, you know, be able to serve my community in that way. Because a health is it’s a basic human rights, and it’s a basic, it’s a basic need that everybody is united by. And so health care to me is extremely important. Because that’s just, it’s mind, body and soul, right? It’s, it’s a combination, that’s what makes your happiness that’s just that, what makes you who you are. And that’s a very important aspect of life. So I love medicine, I don’t think I would ever change my career path. To be honest, I think I was, you know, it was meant for me. However, that doesn’t mean that that’s the only thing that I want to do. And there’s a lot of pre meds out there that, you know, medicine is going to be their life. And I think that’s, you know, I think that’s great. I have friends that, you know, their goal is to be a surgeon and they want medicine to be their entire life. They want to wake up every day and do do just surgery, just think about surgery. And you know, that’s why I’m not going into a specialty you know, my my goal specialty is really just like to be an internist to be a PCP to be a general physician practitioner. That’s really what my goal in medicine is because I really like the people aspect. You know, some of my friends who want to do like surgery in those specialties, like they are prepared to sacrifice everything from medicine. I think that’s great. And I’m prepared to sacrifice a lot for medicine as well stay in school for a long time, really get good at what I’m doing. But it’s not the only thing that I’m going to do in life. I love politics, obviously. I I’m the student body president. So yes, of course. I love politics. I’m in the Student Government. Politics is a huge part of life. It’s a huge part of healthcare as well. It’s a part of everybody’s life. There’s a saying it’s the the personal is political. And I 100% agree with that. There, especially in this climate, there’s nothing that we can do that isn’t political. And so to pretend like politics is a part of your life is just you know, at this point, just it’s just ignorance because politics is a part of everybody’s life. Healthcare is a part of everybody’s life. So politics is really important to me. It’s important to me, to be active in my community to be an active Those things are important. I also love arts, I am a, I like to write in my free time. So I think that’s really important. I like singing, I like all sorts of things. So I think that in my, in my life, I want to make sure that I don’t just dedicate myself to one thing that I do many things, because that’s the kind of person that I am. And that’s what I enjoy to do. I think a lot of times people feel very pressured to specialize in one thing, when you don’t have to do that. You can make one thing your career, you can make one thing, another big part of your life, you don’t have to just limit yourself to just doing one thing, because that’s what you decided to do when you were 18 years old.

Kamila
And let’s backtrack a little bit to the politics that you were talking about. So we didn’t see much politics in at least the extracurriculars you did in high school. So what led you to SGA? And then how did you climb yourself up to President and it seems that you really like it, and you’re really invested in it. So just tell us about that interest? How it formed? Did you always think that you were going to be in SGA? So how did that happen?

Jasmine
Every everything comes full circle, the first time I ever knew anything about SGA. It was because I was sitting in my sorority meeting, and I had two of the presidential candidates come and speak to my sorority. And they were campaigning, there was during election season in February. And they both gave a speech. And I just the girl who was running at the time, the woman who was running, I just I thought oh my gosh, she is so well spoken. She knows, like, I want to be like her one day. Like that’s crazy. Like I didn’t even I didn’t even think like I want to be president of SGA. At the time, I just thought oh my gosh, I want to be like her. Like, she just inspired me so much. And it was funny. The guy who was running against her now was one of my closest friends at the time. I didn’t know him at all. And I wasn’t even impressed with him. I didn’t even vote for him. And now we’re like, lifelong friends. But at the time, yeah, that was my very first exposure. And I found out that somebody in one of my classes was running for SGA. And so the thought kind of like popped into my head like, oh, SGA seems really cool. Student Government seems really cool. The following year, I had somebody else speak to my sorority. And so he came and spoke about like what SGA was doing. And I was like, Oh, hey, and like I reached out to him at the time. And I said, Hey, how do I get involved? How to, you know, what do I do to join this organization? And he said, join my campaign, you know, run run as a senator. So I ran as a NSM. Senator. So NSM is the natural science and mathematics college. So I ran as a NSM senator. And I found out that I was actually running with like a small party. And the other opposing party was like this huge party was already established. The guy I wasn’t super impressed with turns out he ended up winning that that race my freshman year, and then one of his one of the one of the people in his exec ended up running for president that year. And I was running on like a small party against the incumbents. But I ended up winning my seat, only a few of us from the small party when won their seats. And that running for Senator was very stressful. You know, it takes you know, standing outside and campaigning and handing flyers to people. And having you for me, it was unspoken, every big NSM class, I’ve spoken all of the NSM classes, I had a speech, and I would just speak in front of them, sometimes like it was lecture halls of like 300 to 500 students. And I was be like yelling, doing these speeches in front of them. But I was lucky enough to win my seat for the NSM college. And then from there, I became the Chair of one of the Senate committees, the Student Life committee. And I was able to pass a bunch of legislation. We had indigenous peoples day be passed at our school, we had a transfer student helpful tip sheet that I that I helped write and pass. And then a lot of legislation came through my committee that I was able to kind of have these weekly meetings lead these weekly meetings and, you know, pass legislation that was going to make real change on campus. And that’s what was really important to me, the year that I was a senator, we increase the campus minimum wage by $1. So I saw the changes that could be made out of being a part of the organization. And that’s what really, I don’t, that’s what really inspired me to continue. And I had no real goals to be president of the university I or to be student body president. I honestly just wanted to win senator of the year you know, I just wanted to be a great senator. And somebody just took notice of me and they asked me to be their VP. And I, you know, I agreed, we kind of started planning a campaign and then they decided to drop out of school because of financial reasons and give me they were like, you know, if you still want to run, you can plan a campaign and run for president if you want, and at the time was like, oh, oh, I guess I guess I’m that’s what I’m gonna do it. The opportunity presented itself and so all of December before I ran, I spent calling students on the phone, looking through social medias, looking at student leaders looking for people that I thought would be good in the SGA

Jasmine
We saw a lot of like kind of SGA, like burnout from the last administration. So I really wanted to make sure that we had some fresh faces, people who came from all sorts of different walks of life, different kinds of experiences, transfer students, first generation students, international students. And that’s what I kind of formed my campaign around was uplifting voices of underrepresented students, and trying to make real changes for them. So some of those were like mentorship programs, that’s been like the biggest focus of my administration now was creating mentorship programs for first generation international transfer students. So I was able to run, I ran the biggest campaign that you’ve H has ever seen. I ran with, like 35 senators, which was the largest campaign and I ended up winning, I won my presidential debate. And then I won by the largest margin of anybody at U of H, I got 60% of the vote. And I actually spent half the amount of money that my that my opponent spent on the campaign. So I was I was pretty proud of that. You You

Kamila
are definitely made for SGA. That’s Oh, God, biggest campaign biggest margin when? Amazing. That’s really good. So do you have is I understand SGA is a really big part of your life. Do you ever like Do you have any other extracurriculars you focus on as well? Maybe something related to SGA? So how else do you spend your time?

Jasmine
Um, so I did mention, you know, I come from a working class family. So I have had a job since I was 17 years old. i My first job was as a soccer referee. And then I don’t know, I worked at a museum, I worked as a barista, I worked in retail for a very short amount of time. And now I actually worked for an emergency center. So that’s what, uh, what’s what’s the rest of my time is really spent on. As for other extracurriculars, you know, I have my sorority still that I’m a part of, I was part of the theater at our at my university as well, because like I said, you know, I like to do kind of some performing arts type of things. So I did that as well. There’s so many honestly, by at the moment, I have like three jobs including being SGA. President, but and working at the, at the emergency center. Right now I work at the Transfer Center, I just got kind of train and transfer center. So my job is to transfer patients from emergency centers to hospitals. So with the whole pandemic and the corona situation, that’s like a very interesting part of my my life now, because I, I get to hear about what happens or what the pandemic really looks like, from like a, like a firsthand perspective, I have patients call me and crying and tears with lots of anxiety, they don’t know what to do. You know, and I, you know, I reassure them, I tell them to come into our facilities, or we’ll get a call of somebody who has COVID, and we’ll call a hospital and try to transfer them and their hospitals are at capacity. So we have to call all around Houston all around Texas, to try to find somebody a bed in a hospital. And that’s just a very interesting part of part of my life and part of my job, and really shows me like the realities of what a pandemic, what a pandemic does, and in terms of public health.

Kamila
Wow, that’s, I mean, that’s definitely an experience that not every medical student, in fact, probably no medical student has, honestly ever had. So is that like a? How would you say, is that like a big part for when you’re applying to medical school? Like, I don’t know, if it’s, I don’t know how applying to, you know, a graduate school, a different program is, but do you think that’s gonna like help you, you think medical schools are going to see like, Oh, she went through this, she really helped with this, she made a difference in this, like, do you think it’s going to help you at least in the future?

Jasmine
I certainly hope so. I mean, for me, really, I hope that medical schools see my application and see, you know, this is somebody who really cares about making a difference in people’s lives. And I think I hope that that is what kind of sets me not necessarily sets me apart. But that’s a reason why they would want me to go to their medical school, you know, have a track record of making changes, because that’s what I’m passionate about. When I see that there’s a problem, I want to fix it, I want to do everything in my power to try to help alleviate that situation in any way. And that applies to my job as student body president, when I see a problem, I try to address it, you know, we had the Black Lives Matter movement happen. And we know students were upset, they wanted something to be done at our school. So we made these, we were able because of the SGA. And because of student support, we were able to make real policy changes to push for more diversity and inclusion in our schools. And so that’s just like one example of you know, trying to solve a problem once once you see it. So I certainly hope that medical schools will see my job at the Transfer Center and at this emergency center, as as an asset Because I do get to talk to patients, I do understand what it takes to have a compassionate voice over the phone. And I see the realities of what medicine is, and kind of the back end, the administrative portion, the hospital portion, I talk to nurses on the phone, I read medical charts. So I have that clinical exposure that I hope that medical schools are kind of looking for. And I also feel like I have the the people component. That’s, you know, that’s what drew me to medicine in the first place was really the people. And being able to communicate with people of all sorts of different walks of life, I think, is really important. And so I hope they see that in all the things that I do.

Kamila
And okay, that’s amazing. In your own, you’re talking about a change, you’ve definitely made a change in SGA in the emergency room as well. So can you tell us a little bit just a little bit about what you’re thinking? In terms of like medical school? which schools are you going to apply to? Are you going to branch out of Houston out of Texas and apply? So can you tell us a little bit about your plans to do it? Because I mean, you’re you seem like an amazing student that’s going to really go far in life. So can you tell us a little bit about that? Sure. Yeah.

Jasmine
So here’s one, like insider tip, I guess is, I actually I started working for a test prep company, my freshman year of college, and because of that, you know, I always knew I was gonna be on the pre med track, because of because I was working with them, I was able to get one of my MCAT courses, completely free of charge. So free test prep for me, because I started to work for one of the test prep companies. And because of that, I’ve saved myself like $3,000. Wow, afford before. So that’s really important. If you’re like a low income student, and you you have dreams to go to professional school, even not just medical school. But if you want to go to law school, and you know, you want that test prep, you feel like you’re somebody who could really utilize that, that insider tip, we should definitely try to find a part time job as a campus rep for one of the test prep companies. That’s a huge asset. I think, now that I’m starting to think about applying for medical school, like I’m taking my MCAT, probably in January, or over the summer, sometime in the near future. So in terms of what medical schools I want to apply for. That’s very interesting. So you’ve H actually just started a medical school, they have like their first class. Already, they just they just started their first class for their medical school. So we’re hoping to apply there and see what happens. But if that doesn’t work out, I mean, I’m applying to all of the tech, all of the ones in Texas, I’m applying to do schools in Texas, as well as MD schools. And I plan to apply to a few out of state as well just to see if I do get in. And depending on like if the medical school is kind of philosophy aligns with mine. For me, my primary focus is, obviously I want to go to a primary care kind of medical school, not necessarily like a research based medical school. And I also want to make sure that I go to a school where they kind of talk about inclusivity in medicine, that’s something that’s extremely important to me, in light of all of the Black Lives Matter movement, I learned so much about the history of medicine and racism, and discrimination. And because of that, you know, I want to make sure that when I go to a school that acknowledges not that acknowledges that history, and is also actively fighting against that, that’s extremely important to me, because we see disparities in health care, because you know, we have to go to the source. I mean, the source is historic, and, you know, it’s part of the medical school training. So I want to make sure that if I, if I do end up going to medical school, I go to a school that is aware of that, and that is actively trying to be better and be more inclusive. So at the end of the day, the people that graduated from that medical school can be good doctors. And so that’s really important to me is the diversity the inclusivity in medical schools. And, and getting in

Kamila
that too, of course. Oh, that’s amazing. And one last thing I want to ask you specific to college is, you said that high school was a tough time for you and you didn’t really have any motivation. But when you came to college, that all changed. So can you tell us a little bit about what college did for you? What was it about college that kind of drove you that made you motivated and really ambitious? And how did you you know, grow as a person because you said it did definitely help you grow as a person?

Jasmine
Oh, yes. Um, I have changed so much I think from my freshman year. My gosh, I don’t I don’t know if I can really pinpoint a certain moment. I think certainly becoming the student body president of my school was a huge thing. The campaign not even the moment that I knew that I won, but really that entire experience of meeting A lot of new people, a lot of people that had the same values as myself, that’s something that I was kind of looking for my freshman year when I joined a sorority, but something that I found actually in SGA, because I realized that all the different people who want to join student government, you know, it’s not just polystyrene majors, it’s people from, from natural science and mathematics, people from Business College, people from the College of Education, technology, all these different people that are united by this value of they just, they want to make a difference in in their school, which is a selfless that that’s a very selfless desire is, you know, the things that you do in student government aren’t really going to make the school better for you, it’s going to make it better for incoming freshmen down the line. And so that’s the really beautiful thing about about student government, it’s something that really the experience of running a campaign, meeting those people really inspired me, I also think that I started, I realized that hard work and passion really does translate into some sort of results. That’s something that I wasn’t, I mean, even when I never ran for student body president cuz I never thought that I could, that I could ever achieve something like that I just never believed in myself the way that I probably should have. And it wasn’t until somebody saw something in me and asked me to be their VP that I didn’t, that I even considered having some sort of leadership position, it was never something that I thought like, I deserve to be this, you know, I never had that thought in my head. And I’m so grateful now that, you know, somebody saw something in me, and that I was able to see that in myself and understand that I can make a difference just as an individual. And if I work hard, you know, when I worked hard I made that campaign, I did entirely by myself, all that planning that went behind that and the recruiting, I did by myself, I had no VP really, until like, in the middle of the election. So I just knowing that all that hard work would eventually translate into me, you know, becoming a president. And even now, I know that my that my work translates into results. And that really helps kind of change my mindset completely. And now, you know, because I was never really inspired, I never really believed in myself now that I’m in this more position of power to kind of help empower other people and help other people get leadership positions, I try and let people know who might have never gotten told before that they can make a difference that they are capable of growing into somebody who is a leader who is inspiring. And so that’s I really took it upon myself to do that after I became president. Because, you know, nobody really did that. For me, I was just lucky that somebody had seen something in me. And I was I was lucky that I even had that opportunity. I don’t know, the kind of person that I would have been without this entire experience, because I think that person would be very, very different.

Kamila
Yeah. And do you have? Do you have friends or possibly SGA, you know, senators, or somebody that you know, who has also experienced this type of growth? Is this like, kind of universal for college? Or do you think it was more specific in your case, and the opportunities you have in the people who inspired you and saw you as someone worthy of this position? So do you think it’s kind of a universal thing or kind of case by case?

Jasmine
Honestly, like, I, I hope it’s universal. And I think it is universal. For me. I was I was lucky that this that this ended up becoming my journey. You know, I never would have thought that when I first was in high, it was in college. I mean, I was still dealing with mental health issues. I was still on unmotivated, uninspired, and it’ll go it was a big process. But I think it’s it does, I think it is a universal experience. Because once you learn from other people, you start to discover more about yourself. And that’s something that that is a universal thing. When you go to college and you meet different people, you might meet somebody who is extremely hard working, and you might want to have some of those qualities. And if you hang out with them even more, you’re going to start to gain some of those qualities that that person has. And I think that if we put ourselves out there, and we meet new people, that’s really how we grow. And I think that isn’t definitely a universal experience. The more you see others, the more you see them grow, the more you’ll start to discover about yourself, and then be able to figure out the kind of person that you want to be.

Kamila
That’s so inspirational. Oh, no, that’s great advice as well. Thank you so much. That’s the I hope people listen to this and take away what I’ve taken away. That’s amazing. Thank you. So we’re coming to an end here. And this is a question I asked everybody. So it has two parts. So number one for current high school students who are listening right now, and they can be any year freshman, sophomore, junior senior year in high school. What advice would you give for them in high school? To prepare themselves for college or just maybe life in general, and then what would you give to students who are going into college or are starting college because it is kind of a start of the school year? So what advice would you give for those two different groups just, it can be academically related, or it can just be life related. So can you give us some advice?

Jasmine
Sure. Um, so for high school students, I would say, enjoy your time in high school, do everything that you want to do try everything. You know, if you want to play sports, try playing a sport, if you want to join theater or choir, if you have any sort of interest, explore it, and meet a bunch of people and enjoy your high school experience, do not be stressed out all the time. It’s not you can see that stress for college don’t You don’t need to be that stressed in high school. That’s, that’s something that I think a lot of college students will think about going back, I wish I could have just enjoyed my time a little bit more and just tried new things. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself in high school. Because quite honestly, you will grow so much more, that you might not even recognize who you were in high school, I Sir, I certainly do not recognize the person I was in high school. So you will, you will grow so much. So don’t put too much pressure on yourself. And to prepare, just have a plan, have a loose plan. If things don’t go according to plan, it’s fine. At the end of the day, you know, when you’re out in the job market, it’s your college, what you do your college, your their name of the college doesn’t necessarily mean anything, if there’s no substance to go behind it, if you don’t have good stories to go behind it if you don’t have good extracurriculars, if you’re not a good person, like there’s so many other things in life that contribute to your success as a person and in the job market, more than just what name of what college name you have on your transcript. So I think that’s an important thing to recognize that you will have a good experience, no matter where you go, if you don’t get into your top school, it’s okay, it’s life goes on. And you know, maybe you’re gonna end up a better person because of it. So don’t, don’t be too upset if something like that happens. For college students, things are virtual. So I know things are a little bit different. But I still think that I still think that this applies. Get involved, like that’s 100%, the best piece of advice that I can give a college student is you need to join organization, join a few, join a few organizations, if you want, join a few your freshman year, see what sticks, see what you like, and look at the people in the organization and think do I want to be like these people because that’s you know, you are the people that you hang out with at the end of the day, it really is, you know, birds of a feather flock together that’s saying I’ve heard but that’s I think very much applies. If you want to be like these people, then that’s that’s kind of organization that you should you should join, especially when you’re a freshman in college, you see the people in that organization, you thinking they have values, they have qualities that I hope I have one day, join that organization, stick with that organization, stick with it, you know, for a year or two or your entire college experience. And, you know, don’t be afraid to do other things in college as well. I would say, I would say that’s the most important thing, if you’re a college student, you just you have to get involved. And you know, don’t be don’t be afraid to leave, leave what you know behind, don’t be afraid to leave old friends behind, don’t be afraid to to change, because that change is most likely going to be good. And you’re going to end up liking who you are so much more if you accept the change, and you realize that your past isn’t everything your past and who you were and who your friends were the kinds of things that you liked. In the past, they don’t determine your future. So just always keep that in mind to get involved. And don’t be too afraid of changes.

Kamila
This has been an amazing episode, you have given so much good advice. And thank you for sharing a little bit about, you know, your own personal stories, because that has really, you know, like kind of shaped your journey and stuff. So thank you very much for coming today and being interviewed.

Jasmine
Oh, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate that.

Kamila
Yeah, and I hope the best for you with the MCAT and stuff. And I know that this is your senior year, so you won’t be running another election. But I congratulate you on winning student, you know, body president even though you had no intention of doing so that’s also amazing to me.

Jasmine
Oh, well. Thank you so much. I

Kamila
really appreciate that. Other than that, I hope you have a good night.

Jasmine
Oh, thank you so much. You have a good night as well. This has been really great.

Kamila
Thank you so much. Bye bye. That’s it for part two of my interview with Jasmine if you enjoyed that, please subscribe but other than that, I hope to see you in the next episode.