UTSA Graduate School Bootcamp 2025

Hi everyone! I'm excited to be making my first blog post on my site. I'm hoping to use it to make more long-form posts than I do on LinkedIn and to really reflect on events and opportunities! :)

This week (5/19-5/23) I got to participate in an incredible opportunity through the McNair scholars program. We (most of my McNair cohort, a group of 22) got to travel down to San Antonio to participate in the UTSA Graduate School Bootcamp. Traveling to San Antonio, I'll admit I was a bit nervous at first- I knew almost none of those 22 people, and I was worried about having to make new friends! By the end of the first night, which mostly consisted of travel, I felt comfortable already with the group. I really am surrounded by a group of very kind, intelligent people in this program, and it makes me very excited for the upcoming weekly meetings we will start in June for graduate school preparation and research updates.

All of us together after our first dinner together!

The "bootcamp" itself was over the course of three of the five days of the trip. It consisted of a few workshops, but mostly a lot of talks and informational sessions about applying for graduate school, what the first year of graduate school is like, and some anecdotal talks about some current PhD's experience in graduate school or academia in general. I really appreciated the opportunity to meet with recruiters from some graduate schools, as well as the workshop activity on "finding your why," which consisted on reflecting on what you're passionate about and why or how that drives the research you plan to do. Finding my "why" is something I'm always refining, but I think I have a pretty good idea after the self-reflection.

There were also opportunities to connect more with San Antonio! We were given a campus tour of the main campus UTSA, as well as a dinner on the River Walk with a boat tour down the river included! I feel so lucky to get to experience it all- and the real cherry on top was that our boat tour guide was a McNair alum and planned to start his PhD this fall!

Overall, I'm incredibly happy and thankful to have been given this opportunity, but experiences like this may not be around for much longer for others. Currently, the 2026 FY budget intends to completely defund all TRIO programs, which includes the McNair Scholars program, a program intended to give those from underrepresented communities in academia a pathway to achieve their dreams of obtaining a PhD. I believe this program, along with the many others in TRIO, are essential and pivotal to many peoples academic journey, including my own. Please reach out to your local representatives and let them know that you support TRIO and that you want them to reject the proposal to eliminate TRIO! Click here to be taken to a website that will already have a sample message drafted for your convenience :).

Thank you for reading, and I look forward to making new posts soon!

Everyone in attendance o the bootcamp! You can see me in the front row towards the right :)