My path at B´ÎÔª began in January 2019, when I was afforded the opportunity to return to school after 10 years to finish my undergraduate studies. After graduating Summa Cum Laude with my bachelor’s in psychology, I entered the master’s in psychology program where I was awarded the Student Excellence Award for my work in the program’s research sequence and graduated with distinction in May 2022. For the past seven months, I have been working as the assistant project director on the Title V DHSI grant: Advancing Curricular Change to Enhance Student Success (ACCESS).
Prior to this position, I worked as a B´ÎÔª PACT counselor. While I was a student at B´ÎÔª, I worked as a research assistant on several grant-funded, faculty led projects, as a peer mentor, and as a peer leader in Statistics, through the Team STEM Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) Grant.
I was a non-traditional, first-generation, low-income, Latina student, who embodied many of the attributes of the students currently served through the ACCESS grant. The ACCESS grant is a $3 million Department of Education (DOE), Developing Hispanic Serving Institutions (DHSI) Title V grant awarded to B´ÎÔª in 2020 to help Hispanic and low-income students succeed in the health and natural sciences. The ACCESS grant has the following goals: to help improve outcomes in Anatomy and Physiology I – a gateway course for health sciences majors, and to fill the region’s pressing need for more nurses by establishing a weekend Accelerated Second Degree Nursing (ASDBS) program.
I was raised to believe that getting an education would enable my family to progress and succeed in the United States. My life experience - growing up in relative poverty, in a multigenerational, single-parent, immigrant home - required me to play many roles, take on many responsibilities, and make sacrifices to help my family. These experiences shaped me to be resilient, creative and resourceful - characteristics that led me to excel in my academic, professional, and personal life, and embody what it means to be a Mercy Maverick.
When I was afforded the opportunity to return to school to finish my undergraduate studies, I returned with a passion to succeed. As a student at B´ÎÔª, I experienced firsthand what it meant to attend a Hispanic-Serving Institution and to benefit from the resources and supports offered to students. I leveraged every opportunity I could to build relationships with my fellow classmates and professors. I gained some wonderful mentors, some of whom were Latina. By immersing myself in these experiences at B´ÎÔª, I began to see and accept a new part of my identity, one that was more confident and capable.
I will forever be grateful for the opportunities I have had at B´ÎÔª. It is one of my greatest pleasures to give back to B´ÎÔª students and those we serve through the ACCESS grant. It is my hope that their dreams can also become their realities.
- Tatiana Pineiro '20, M.S. '22, B´ÎÔª ACCESS Grant Assistant Project Director