Yasmin Sandoval helps lead a “Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream” demonstration with the UMD Chemistry Club, sparking curiosity and excitement about chemistry among her peers.
Yasmin Sandoval, a biochemistry student at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD), was presented the University of Minnesota’s Scholarly Excellence in Equity and Diversity (SEED) Award, which honors underrepresented students who are doing outstanding work in advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion on campus and in the community.
Sandoval serves as the vice president of both the Latinx/Chicanx Student Association and the Biochemistry Club at UMD, where she’s dedicated to creating space for students to feel welcome on campus and inspiring the next generation of young scientists through community outreach events.
After graduation, she hopes to attend medical school and work as a physician in an urban setting. She recently completed a job shadow opportunity at the University of Minnesota’s Community-University Health Care Center in Minneapolis, a clinic dedicated to serving patients of all income levels, with and without insurance. “A lot of the physicians practice in two languages,” Sandoval said. “That's something that I really want to do.”
Sandoval grew up in St. Paul and remembers translating for her parents during clinic and hospital visits. “Being able to help them in that way and make sure that they had their needs communicated to the physicians was always something that I thought was really powerful,” she said. Helping advocate for her parents in the healthcare system is “one of the primary reasons why I wanted to get into medicine in the first place … to be able to do that for other people.”
As a first-generation college student, Sandoval wasn’t sure what to expect when she began her educational journey, and “being a woman of color in STEM classes can be very difficult to navigate at times,” she said. But she was also struck by how many opportunities there were to get involved and how many people actively encouraged her to seek leadership roles.
“I am really happy here and proud to call myself a biochemistry major,” she said. “I found a lot of really great opportunities that I wouldn't have found anywhere else.”
Broadening access to healthcare and providing opportunities for students of all backgrounds to pursue a career in medicine is just another way the University of Minnesota is serving as Minnesota’s healthcare leader.