Erica Kwok came to UChicago from a farming town in Southern Illinois called Fairfield, with a population under 5,000. Moving to the city was overwhelming – and she remembers the “sea of intelligent, talented individuals” around her being intimidating at times.
Like many first-generation low-income (FLI) students, before her first school year Kwok took part in the Center for College Student Success’s (CCSS) Chicago Academic Achievement Program (CAAP), which provides an early exposure to scholarly and social life at UChicago.
The team there recommended signing up for the Maroon Mentors program, also run by CCSS, which connects first-year FLI students with peer upperclassmen mentors. It didn’t take Kwok long to see the value in that advice.
“I really appreciated the idea of one-on-one mentoring, especially from someone with a similar identity,” Kwok said. “The transition to college was quite nerve-wracking for me, and I wanted to be able to tackle my imposter syndrome with a mentor who knew how to navigate similar challenges.”
Kwok was paired with Ashhad Querisi, AB’20, who is now attending medical school at the University of Pennsylvania. Though Kwok had applied to UChicago with the intention of going to law school, she was unsure towards the end of her first year. Querisi reminded her there was still time to change her course.
“I think it was the push I needed to be confident in myself and start to thrive in the STEM courses I knew I loved,” Kwok said.
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This story was first published by UChicago College.
