Emily Rencsok, UMB CURE Scholars Program

Emily's Fellowship:

Emily is the Mentoring Specialist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore CURE Scholars Program, a science pipeline for underrepresented minorities. As the Mentoring Specialist, Emily recruits and trains new mentors from UMB and the greater Baltimore community to work with students in three West Baltimore middle schools during after school, Saturday, and summer mentoring sessions. Emily will form relationships between UMB and neighboring colleges/universities to recruit new mentors, and she will ensure that all mentors receive proper cultural competency and trauma training throughout the year.

Background:

Emily came to Baltimore from Michigan by way of Johns Hopkins University, studying biomedical engineering and recently graduating in May 2016. Throughout her four years at Hopkins, Emily became very involved in the Baltimore community through Thread, an organization that supports underperforming high school students in Baltimore City, and this led her to want to stay in Baltimore long-term. In addition to her strong interests in social justice and serving her community, Emily is also very passionate about medicine and cancer research, hoping to pursue an MD/PhD in the future. In her free time, Emily obsesses over SpaceX and Tesla, teaches herself to play the guitar, and spends too much time watching shows on Netflix.

Why do you choose to live and work in Baltimore?  

I knew I couldn't leave Baltimore when I found myself crying on a quad at Hopkins in the middle of the day at the thought of accepting a job offer all the way back in Michigan. I've grown to love Baltimore over the past four years because of the people, because there's always something new to do, and because there's so much pride in the city and motivation to make Baltimore the best it can be.

What's one surprising fact about yourself?  

I would volunteer to be on the first manned mission to Mars in a heartbeat!

Go-to snack? 

Peanut butter and chocolate