I’m actually from West Bend, Pennsylvania. Most of the people where I'm from have never heard of UMass. All the opportunities I've had here are nothing I could have ever gotten at home. I study trypanosomiasis, trying to characterize how it affects the immune system, so that eventually they can develop a vaccine. Students design their own research. And in conjunction with a mentor, they'll actually perform their own projects. And some are just for a year. Mine's going to be three and half years long- by the time I'm done. And especially if you want to go on to grad school, like that's exactly what they look for. University of Massachusetts and Tufts have a joint program. So I applied to Tufts my sophomore year. And then I was accepted. They built two new science buildings, which is nice, because we get all of the state-of-the-art equipment. Running is definitely my way to kind of release from the world. De-stress. This year we have a great bunch of new girls that came in. We all run together in the afternoons. I love being able to go out and explore all this beautiful country around UMass. I love the attitudes of everyone around here. There's such a variety of people. And so it's just a great place to learn and to kind of broaden my horizons. I'm Rachel Hilliard, Class of 2015. I stand for making a difference. And I stand for UMass.