“It opened my eyes to all the ways I lacked support in my efforts to become a brain scientist. They were essential to some of my best decisions; they pointed me to resources I wouldn’t have found alone. Even today, I often call them when I am feeling uncertain about my path.”
― Myriam Palomino, CoB Mentee
Photo by Erik Jepsen/UC San Diego Publications
Our Mission
Colors of the Brain is a UC San Diego student organization that was founded in 2016 to diversify STEM graduate education by providing undergraduate students from historically underrepresented backgrounds with invested graduate student mentors who have gone through the transition into Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D research programs.
All of our graduate mentors come from underrepresented and/or first-generation backgrounds, and we are all motivated by the desire to give other students advice and access to the things we struggled with ourselves.
Colors of the Brain provides a supportive environment where undergraduate students can get assistance with reviewing and editing their resumes/CVs and applications for various academic opportunities, ranging from conference travel awards and research positions to graduate program applications. We also create a social infrastructure and community where students can find mentors, discuss projects, or just decompress about academic life.
See our article in the UC San Diego Newsletter!
“In every position that I’ve been in, there have been naysayers who don’t believe I’m qualified or who don’t believe I can do the work. And I feel a special responsibility to prove them wrong.“
― Sonia Sotomayor, NPR Interview
“The paradox of education is precisely this – that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.”
― James Baldwin, “A Talk to Teachers” Speech
“One cannot expect positive results from an educational or political action program which fails to respect the particular view of the world held by the people.”
― Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed
UC San Diego Organization 