Hi, I am Dequina Nicholas, PhD (She, her), Founder of 1stGenInSTEM.org.

This is my 1st-Gen story.

My mother immigrated to the US from Jamaica and my father from Dominica. Growing up, they instilled in me the importance of education. Like any good immigrant family, the come up is to have your children go to medical school and become a “DOCTOR”. But being a doctor wasn’t it for me. I shadowed in an ER and was like nope. It's cold, too much white paint, and everyone around me is sick.

I started my undergradate degree with no idea what to actually do with a STEM degree. I just knew I loved science! Not only that, but I was blessed to have a professor that invited and encouraged me to participate in his research. This changed my world. The work I did in the lab I found incredibly boring!

Dehydrating alcohols with acid wasn't where it's at. BUT, I fell in love with the process of research. It was so invigorating to tackle a question that no one in the world had an answer to. I was addicted to the challenge of solving scientific problems. I ended up learning through the brother of a friend of my mom’s that you could do research as a career. Wuut!

Long story short, I applied to a small private institution for graduate school. Once I started my PhD program, it was painfully obvious how little I knew. Throughout my entire career, I have felt a step behind, but have been blessed to have been in structured programs that showed me all the things that I didn’t know.

My goal and vision is to take the experience I had in these programs and make the information available to all first generation students. I want to put front and center the type of questions students interested in a career in STEM should be asking.

Someone had to tell me things that seem straightforward to students with family who have advanced degrees. Things like “grad school is year-round” “you have to rotate and pick a lab to do your research in” and “you should look for a postdoc a year or more before graduating”.

I do not take the support I have received lightly. I absolutely stand on the shoulders of giants and plan to use 1stgeninstem.org to pay my gratitude forward to the next generation of diverse scientists.