Jami’s Story
How Jami Found Her Calling: Academia
Last fall, Jami H. packed up her desk at a pharmacology research lab at the University of Colorado Anschutz. She called it “the best job she’s ever had.”
The good news is she was trading it for something bigger: Jami recently started a PhD in pharmacology and molecular science at Johns Hopkins University, with plans to become a research professor. She’s now in her second year at one of the best programs of its kind in the country.
While she is proud of her achievement, Jami speaks with a tone that is at once determined and humble. She had been building to this moment for a long time — at Warren Village and beyond.
A First-Generation College Student
Jami had dropped out of school at age fourteen, and spent years afterward unsure of her next step. She first went to massage therapy school, which put her on what felt like solid ground. Then she found herself unexpectedly pregnant, and estranged from the support she needed most. She wanted to build something stable for her daughter, Jayda.
"My life just would not be what it is today without Warren Village.”
She applied to Warren Village when Jayda was a baby, but didn’t have her GED, a requirement for the program. A few months later, she sat for the GED exam and passed. A few months after that, she and Jayda moved in. “I really just set my sight on being able to live independently,” she says.
It wasn’t an easy adjustment at first. It was her first time living completely alone with a child. Jami was also the first person in her family to go to college, which presented problems, as she didn’t know how to enroll in school or apply for financial aid.
Warren Village’s family advocates helped her build a plan: start school, get Jayda into childcare, build a community. Jami embraced these goals, going head-first into everything offered from a financial wellness program to Family Night. One particularly fond memory was a cooking class called Cooking Matters, as she says cooking never came naturally to her. “I loved having that opportunity to cook,” she says, “and then take those recipes home and cook it for my daughter.”
Finding Her Passion at Warren Village
Somewhere along her journey at Warren Village, Jami says that something in her began to shift. “My life changed because I finally was building confidence toward my ability to be independent,” she says. “I found my passion and calling, which is in learning and higher education and academia.”
A self-described shy person, she pushed herself into networking events, where she eventually met people at local foundations, who introduced her to scholarship opportunities she hadn’t known existed. After her first years of community college loans, Jami never took out another one, rigorously applying to scholarships to afford attending University. “I became better at networking,” she says. “I had a good amount of improvement in my mental health. My life just would not be what it is today without Warren Village.”
Feeling determined, she decided to keep building. Jami started taking classes on-site through Warren Village’s College to Career Initiative, a partnership with the Community College of Denver. Because credits from her first associate’s degree didn’t transfer, she completed a second one. It was a rigorous physical therapy assistant program, two years, which she did while also volunteering and sitting on student government. “There were many times I was not sure I was going to make it through,” she says. “But I kept persevering.” Jami graduated and won two academic honors along the way, including the Outstanding Bachelors of Science Award at CU Denver. “I don’t even know why I won it,” she says, “but somebody selected me, and I was very proud of myself. It was all the support I got at Warren Village and along the way that made it possible.”
Her interest in pharmacology, specifically how drugs interact with the brain, has personal roots. Her older brother lived with schizophrenia, and she lost him young from an overdose. In the years since, she’s chased an understanding of what happens chemically in the brain, a pursuit that carried her through massage therapy school and physical therapy work before pharmacology found her. She applied to the Colorado summer research internship at CU Anschutz two years running and was rejected both times before getting in on her third try. That internship, she said, eventually led to the job she left for Johns Hopkins.
“Things Do Get Better”
To the single parents walking a version of her path now, Jami has this to offer: “It may not feel like it right now, but things do get better. It’s all about how you show up.”
She’s candid that none of it was easy, and that she didn’t always get it right along the way. “It’s just finding your support through your people,” she says, “the people who love and support you and accept you for who you are, but who will also be open and honest with you.”
Ask for help, she says. The worst someone can do is say no and at best, it “can open doors we never imagined walking through.”
“At the end of the day, my daughter is the most precious thing that has happened to me. She is what motivates me. If a parent can figure out what their values are and lead with those, that will help them get where they want to go a lot faster.”
For the donors who helped fund the path that got her here, Jami has a message of her own. “In an environment where federal funds are in a questionable state, it’s the person-to-person values of supporting these organizations that help them thrive,” she says. “It helps give someone like me an opportunity to say: I came from a low-income background, have experienced homelessness, and have made it all the way to going to Johns Hopkins. Without donors, I think organizations would struggle to find the resources they need. Their donations make a difference.”
Last fall, Jami left Colorado for the first time in her life. Jayda came with her, and she carried a confidence in herself from all she had accomplished in school and at Warren Village. Now, she is at the one of the best pharmacology programs in the country — an accomplishment she is proud of. A year in, she’s excited to build on her successes.