Life changes can drastically alter your plans, leading you down a path you might not have considered. For Jasmine Hargrove, sudden changes in her life led her to becoming a non-traditional student in UMD’s Master of Arts in Psychological Science (MAPS) program.
Hargrove began her academic career in Tennessee where she studied chemical engineering. She went on to work in plants for Kellogg and General Mills. But when an injury left her unable to work for a year and a half, she started to rethink her career.
Around the same time, Hargove’s grandmother suffered a stroke. This sparked an interest in degenerative diseases. “My grandmother and my injury really pushed me to pursue psychology,” she says, expressing that she also wanted a career that was not so physically demanding.
Hargrove attended a community college and the University of Tennessee to earn her bachelor’s degree. While studying, she found out how vast the psychology field is. “There are just so many more options than a therapist or being in a lab … there’s a whole other part of psychology that we just don’t talk about because people don’t know about it,” she says.
She was accepted into four graduate programs, and decided that UMD’s MAPS program and its experimental track was the best fit. She felt drawn to the area. “It’s strange but I would go on YouTube and watch videos of people driving around different cities,” she remarks. “I really liked what Duluth looked like, and I was over the hot weather.”
Hargrove was a University of Minnesota Diversity of Views & Experience Fellowship (DOVE) award recipient in 2023-24. This competitive program aims to “promote a diversity of views, experiences, and ideas in the pursuit of research, scholarship, and creative excellence.” It provides stipends and tuition to “academically excellent students who are looking to positively impact their graduate program, and whose representations of diversity are expressed in its many forms—including, but not limited to, thought, geography, faith, experiences, background, ethnicity, gender and interests.”
It was a difficult application that was writing intensive, but the time she spent on it proved to be worthwhile. The fellowship has given Hargove the opportunity to concentrate on academics and lab work. She encourages students not to be afraid to apply for such scholarships.
Research with an impact
Hargrove is now preparing her thesis. It’s been a challenging process, but the resources she’s found along the way (such as the American Psychological Association) have been helpful. The people she is surrounded with have also positively influenced her. “I got very lucky with my cohort—we are not competitive, we’re very supportive of each other,” Hargrove says.
Her thesis focuses on the effects of microaggressions and loneliness on the health of students of color in predominantly white institutions (PWIs). Research has shown that BIPOC students are more likely to suffer poor health in the years after they graduate.
Hargrove is hoping to address this issue by finding ways to detect early signs of metabolic disorders such as diabetes or hypothyroidism, so people can get them under control before they get worse. Her current research investigates signs of these disorders, which can be measured in saliva via certain biomarkers. She is focusing on students of color in the medical field and working with research participants from the University of Minnesota Medical School in Duluth and the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science on this project.
Hargrove hopes her findings have a broader impact. Ultimately, she wants to encourage UMD and other universities to recruit more students of color. By doing so, she suggests they will be able to serve any student from a lower socioeconomic background better, making sure they don’t feel isolated and lost. “If we can better support them, we can retain them,” she comments, “and when you’re not lonely, you’re more likely to succeed.”
This story was written by UMD student Jax Wilder, who is majoring in psychology. Jax assists Lissa Maki with communications for the College of Education and Human Service Professions.