A Bakersfield native, Jackson’s teen years were all about basketball. Her life really started when she decided not to pursue the sport in college and instead concentrate on school.
It took some time for Jackson to decide exactly what she wanted to do, but she knew she wanted to work somewhere in the medical field. When she was in junior high, her mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Jackson would often accompany her mom to doctor appointments.
“That’s when I started realizing, ‘Oh, I could do this job,’” she remembered. “I was able to talk with her different doctors and realize that I wanted to help people the way they were helping my mom.”
With that in mind, Jackson decided to major in biochemistry. As a declared science major in her first year, she was able to join the NSME Career Pathways program’s 2019-20 cohort. As part of the program, Jackson was paired with an older student who would mentor her.
“I went in there like, ‘OK, I gave up basketball, I don’t really have an identity right now, and here’s someone who is going to mentor me through the first year and get me on my feet to where I can be successful,’” she said. “I feel like I needed that in order to realize that I can still be successful in other things that I haven’t been pursuing my whole life.”
When the COVID pandemic struck in her second semester, Jackson admits she was scared and struggled with motivation. Fortunately, the community she found at CSUB with her classmates, mentees and fellow mentors in the Pathways program and her professors in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department kept her afloat.
“I think one of the best things that came out of me being at CSUB was the people who surrounded me coming out of the pandemic,” she said. “Having people around me to reassure me and support me through these years was really important to me and something I’ll never forget that I had at CSUB.”
After her first year in the Pathways program, Jackson became a mentor herself, working with younger students to start their college experience on the right foot. One thing she took from being mentored was the importance of understanding that everyone’s situation is different.
“I try to implement that into how I mentor my students, because it’s easy to say, ‘Oh, everyone should be getting A’s, I’m helping them,’ and that’s not always the case,” she said. “Things come up. Mental health is a big thing, and we don’t always have the motivation to get things done the way we once did, so it’s important for me to be understanding and open with my mentees that we’re not always going to be perfect, and that’s OK.”
Jackson has served as a Pathways mentor since the fall of 2020 and as the lead student assistant in the NSME Advising Center. More recently, she has transitioned into the lead role for the Pathways program, taking on the responsibility of supervising mentors while the program adviser is out on leave.
“It’s been really fun to have the ability to directly help students and prepare them in ways they didn’t think they needed to be prepared in,” she said.