Bianca Lacey
The Kinesiology Merit Fellowships are given to students from educational, cultural, or geographic backgrounds that are underrepresented in kinesiology in the United States or at the University of Michigan. These students have demonstrated a commitment to diversity in the academic, professional, or civic realm through their work experience, volunteer engagement, or leadership of student or community organizations.
Read on to learn more about Bianca Lacey, one of this year’s undergraduate fellows.
Q: What was your reaction to being chosen as a Kinesiology Merit Fellow?
A: I feel really honored that I was picked to be one. They said they pick people who are underrepresented in kinesiology and who seem to be exemplary students, and that made me feel really good.
Q: Why is it important to you to be an exemplary student?
A: I grew up in Michigan, a little over an hour away from Ann Arbor, and U-M has always been my dream school, ever since I was a little kid. Since I wanted to go here, I knew that to do that, I had to have good grades. I always wanted it for myself; my mom didn’t have to push me.
Q: What was it like for you to grow up?
A: My mom is my best friend. She had me when she was younger, when she was 18. So my mom's and my relationship is different than a lot of my friends’. And then my siblings are 6 and 7. So they're so much younger than me. But I love it so much. I would never in a million years change the way that we are.
Q: Do you think those family dynamics affected your drive to succeed professionally at all?
A: I feel like watching my mom be a single mother really motivated me because personally, I don’t think I could do it. And so, just seeing how strong she is to do that, especially at such a young age, pushed me to go through with what I wanted. It was like, ‘If she can do all this, then I can definitely get through that.’
Q: How do you feel about bringing that perspective to U-M?
A: I feel like displaying diversity is really important. I could tell I wasn’t necessarily the same as most of the people who went to my school growing up. But then in high school, we had a diversity club, and they tried their hardest to host special celebrations and days and shows about different cultures and races and ethnicities. And everyone really liked it.
So that experience made me realize how important it is to show diversity, and I’m glad I could personally contribute to showing diversity for this school.
Q: Are you continuing to do anything in the DEI space now that you’ve come to U-M?
A: I’m part of one club; the main focus isn’t necessarily diversity, but it integrates diversity into it. It’s called Kesem. It’s this club where you help kids whose parents have cancer. But they want all types of students so the kids can relate to anyone there.
Q: Why were you interested in participating in that?
A: I’m interested in oncology. That’s what I want to go into. Our grandma recently passed away from cancer; I know how hard it was for my younger siblings, and it wasn’t even their parent. So I thought it’d be a nice club to join because I can kind of relate to what they’re going through.
Q: Have you found community elsewhere at U-M?
A: Yeah, especially in my intro to MOVESCI class. I feel like that really helped ‘cause we worked in teams in that class. So it really forces you to get close with the few people you work with. Now I have a super close group of people who are also in the School of Kinesiology, in movement science like me.
But I love everyone that I’ve met here. I assumed I was going to like U-M, but I did not think I would like it this much. Whenever I’m home, I miss being at school. I love it here.
Watching my mom be a single mother motivated me because personally, I don’t think I could do it. Just seeing how strong she is to do that pushed me to go through with what I wanted.