Back when Jehiel Smith was in middle school, the movies “Hidden Figures” and “Black Panther” celebrated Black people with expertise in STEM fields. “Those movies were big for my age group and my culture,” he said. But as much as he admired those characters, their knowledge felt out of reach.
He considered working in healthcare, perhaps as a doctor. He spent his teenage years as his mother’s primary caregiver, helping her cope with multiple chronic conditions. Those experiences led him to earn his nursing assistant certification at age 17, which allowed him to work at a nursing facility in his neighborhood in Greenfield.
During high school, Smith also met the founders of Pipeline to Practice, a Milwaukee nonprofit that supports American descendants of slavery in their efforts to become doctors. When cofounder Dr. Delicia Randle-Izard learned about Smith’s experience working with older adults, she encouraged him to attend UW-Milwaukee and apply to its Success Through Aging Research program. Funded by the National Institute on Aging, the program gives UWM undergraduate students funding, academic support and the chance to work on mentored research projects related to aging.
Smith was initially hesitant. “I thought, ‘There’s no way I’m going to do well in research,’” he said. “I just want to help people feel better.”
But Randle-Izard encouraged him to consider how his research might help many more elderly patients. And research experience could help his future medical school applications.
Smith applied and was accepted into the STAR program. He joined Professor Michael Carvan’s lab in the School of Freshwater Sciences, studying zebrafish, a type of fish with genetic similarities to humans. In one project, Smith investigated how introducing novel objects, such as Legos, into zebrafish tanks enhances the fish’s ability to cope with and adapt to stressful situations. Zebrafish allow researchers to explore the biological processes that contribute to human behavior.
A neuroscience major, Smith now works in the lab of Elizabeth Liedhegner, assistant professor of biomedical science, where he is studying a cell model of diabetic retinopathy, the leading cause of blindness in the developed world. One of their goals is to understand how high glucose alters protein expression involved in blood vessel growth and inflammation.
This year, his fourth at UWM, Smith will continue his undergrad coursework and gain additional research experience. Hands-on learning in the lab has built his confidence in challenging biology courses.
Medical school remains a possibility. “But doing research has definitely opened my mind to all the ways I can contribute to science,” Smith says. And he’s proud that talking about his research with younger cousins has inspired them to consider science-based careers.
