Boise State University doctoral student Mone’t Alberts was awarded the Hometown Challenge Scholarship this summer. Alberts graduated from Boise State University in May with a bachelor’s degree in material science and engineering. In June, she began her journey working towards a doctorate in biomedical engineering.
The challenge awards financial support for students to develop and implement a project that will positively impact their local communities. One issue [Alberts] sees in her community is that, “there aren’t a lot of places for minority students to get info about going to college.”
Alberts explained that the support she is striving to provide, “is something I never had, and never even knew I needed until my senior year of college.” Her senior year, Alberts joined the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, as well as the National Society of Black Engineers, where she currently serves as the communications officer.
“If I had known from the beginning that all these resources were available to me, I wouldn’t have struggled as much as I did when I first started school,” notes Alberts.
The Hometown Challenge has given Alberts the opportunity to reduce the struggles she endured for those who succeed her. Initially, she wanted to create an online web-based platform of resources to provide to Boise-area high schools and college-aged minority students, however, she came across some minor setbacks. When approaching local schools about her project, she did not receive the response she had hoped for. This did not stop Alberts from reaching her goals, instead, she redirected her path and decided to create an Instagram page, @yourstrulymonet.
Alberts states that the reasoning behind this signature-esque instagram handle is that “everywhere that I’m at right now started with me sending an email to someone else. The very first email I sent that really changed my life was an email to Dr. Eric Jankowski, asking him if he knew of any internship opportunities in material science at Boise State. He emailed me back and said ‘if you can make it into my lab by 3 pm tomorrow and you like what you see, you have an internship.’” Since getting that internship, Alberts’ has had continued success in her field of study, and it all began with one email.
“I wanted to make an Instagram page that is an open letter to minority students to know that they are not alone in higher education.” Go follow her page now @yourstrulymonet.
By Sidney Stull