If you told me five years ago that I’d be here—a pre-med student at Amherst College, an international transfer from Uganda and Botswana by way of community college—I would not have believed you for a second. I say this to the transfer student who feels like an outlier: the one who has been out of school for a few gap years, switching careers or majors, or deciding to start again in a new academic setting. Whatever brought you here, however winding your path may seem, you’re right where you’re supposed to be.
Coming to Amherst has been both the best and most shocking experience of my educational journey. It began with one of the most important decisions I made early on: scheduling a meeting with Dr. Richard Aronson, the Dean of Health Professions at the Loeb Center. If you’re pre-health, make that appointment. The conversations you have with him aren’t just about checking boxes or meeting academic requirements; they’re about understanding who you are and how your story shapes your goals. Through just a few meetings, I learned things I didn’t even know I needed to know—things my community college wasn’t aware of—that made a huge difference, especially as an international student transferring credits from abroad. Those conversations helped me build an academic plan that balanced my major and pre-med requirements, something I simply couldn’t have done on my own, given the complexity of U.S. medical school requirements for international students.
When I arrived as a junior, I had only one summer internship under my belt. For most pre-health students, that’s considered pretty minimal—by junior year, many already have two or three. So yes, I struggled a lot with feeling behind in my journey. It’s a valid feeling, but it’s also not the full truth. That kind of thinking assumes there’s a standard or ideal path to your goal, when in reality, there isn’t. Our journeys may not look the same, but that doesn’t make them less worthy or less certain. The detours don’t delay our destination; they shape it. They teach us what kind of person we want to be when we finally arrive.
In my first year at Amherst, I sought out summer opportunities and found incredible support through the Loeb Center. From Emily Tarelia, who helped me create a list of potential internships to apply for, to Micah Owino, who affirmed my passion for social impact and guided me through applying to Projects for Peace, the people I met there helped me see that I wasn’t behind; I was simply moving at the pace that was right for me.
All I’m really trying to say is this: making the decision to visit the Loeb Center early and intentionally as a new transfer student might be one of the best choices you make in your transition to Amherst College. You don’t have to have it all figured out when you walk in. In fact, that’s the point—you’re allowed to show up with questions, uncertainty, even fear. Because growth doesn’t happen once you’ve “caught up”. It happens the moment you realize that your path, however unconventional, however uncertain, is still unfolding exactly as it should.
