Feature - Blair Martin, C'2026
Githii Issues
Blair Martin, C'2026
Knowing the next steps after college can be scary for most college students. Just as choosing where we would experience our undergraduate years, deciding the following academic or career decision can be a time of uncertainty, fear, and insecurity. However, for those planning to go to graduate schools after Spelman, students can develop a better idea of their next steps through graduate preview programs. Today, Aliyah Webster, c/o 24, discusses her experience and benefits of graduate preview programs, the struggles of an uncertain future, and overcoming comparison insecurities at Spelman.
Aliyah Webster, a rising senior biochemistry major from Virginia Beach, VA, recently participated in various graduate school preview programs, including one at Rockefeller University in New York City and one at UPenn in Philadelphia. This opened her eyes to how vital these programs are to choosing the best program for her academic and career goals.
“It’s important to go and visit these programs to really visualize yourself there. It’s much easier to do that than just researching it.”
With plans to earn her Ph.D. in biomedical sciences after Spelman, learning about these graduate programs for Webster meant trying to find the program that truly fits her desires and aspirations. Graduate preview programs allowed Webster to get hands-on experience of what life as a graduate student at Rockefeller and UPenn would look like. The Rockefeller workshop “truly immersed us in science and allowed us to engage with some of the lab equipment used to analyze specimens like cells and DNA” and “helped me picture myself even more as a Ph.D. student and get a better idea of what my future academic career may consist of!” Webster found these opportunities through the support of Dr. Kimberly Jackson, the biochemistry department head, who recommended this program to her and another student—demonstrating the importance of building relationships with not only our peers but with our professors. Webster goes more in-depth about her experience, how she was able to encourage herself to seek these opportunities, and how her Spelman sisters could achieve the same.