Kerry is a student in the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources graduating with a dual degree in allied health sciences and molecular and cell biology. She has been recognized as a University Scholar and Babbidge Scholar for three years. Passionate about research, she was awarded the CT Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Science Grant. Applying for the Health Research Program, she started working at the UConn Health Center in the Department of Biology and Genome Sciences, focusing on a project, “The Effects of MAPK Signaling on the Development of Cerebellar Granule Cells.”

In addition to being a talented academic, Kerry has a love for helping others. Through UConn Community Outreach, she started volunteering with a child mentorship program at Windham Heights Community Center. She then became the Program Director of Campus Big Buddies, Treasurer of Best Buddies, and is now the Coordinator for Youth and Adolescent Education/Development programs. Kerry has provided basic medical and public health education to communities in Tena, Ecuador with MedLife Medical Services and has worked on numerous suicide-prevention projects at the Injury and Violence Prevention Center under the Hayley Petit Fellowship at Connecticut’s Children.

In the future, she plans on working in a hospital as a Patient Care Assistant before going to medical school and specializing in pediatrics or orthopedics. After graduation, Kerry hopes to earn a master’s degree in public health and specialize in healthcare disparities or child maltreatment. She is the first person in her family to pursue a medical profession. On reflection, she has said “I have grown so much and learned beyond what I had ever seen imagined possible.”