My First Exposure to Research, Matia Solomon

Matia Solomon will begin her first year of medical school in fall 2025 at the University of Minnesota. She reflects on her experience in M-ASCEND. In particular, the program’s effects on her professional opportunities, the impacts it had on her career, and her pursuit of medical school.

Please share your journey starting in M-ASCEND and where you are now.

“Upon completing my first year of undergrad as a pre-med student, I realized that in addition to my academic pursuits within classroom settings, I had to seek opportunities outside the classroom that would broaden my horizons and enrich my educational experience. Research was something that fulfilled this desire, and participating in a summer research internship was a primary goal of mine. With this sentiment in mind, I applied for the M-ASCEND internship. 

I participated in M-ASCEND under the mentorship of Dr. Anna Prizment, a cancer epidemiologist, during the summer of 2022, immediately after completing my first year of college. I graduated in May 2024 with a degree in Biology, Society, and the Environment from the University of Minnesota. I took a gap year, during which I traveled to Zambia and volunteered in a school setting, teaching biology and chemistry.

I returned to Minnesota in February 2025. Currently, I am completing a summer research internship through the Advanced Pathways to Research Program (A-PREP) and will commence my first year as a medical student this fall at the University of Minnesota Medical School. A-PReP is a research training program offered by the University of Minnesota Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) for doctoral-level professional health sciences students and early-PhD students interested in clinical and translational research.

How did M-ASCEND play a role in your career and the connections you made?

M-ASCEND was my first exposure to research. It provided the foundational experience, knowledge, and academic interest that I continued to build upon throughout my undergraduate and post-graduate career. My M-ASCEND project title was “The Relationship Between Race and Gender and Quality of Life in Cancer Survivors.” It focused on health disparities in quality of life outcomes among cancer survivors.

Upon completing my summer internship with M-ASCEND, the lead statistician on the project, Dr. Patricia Jewett, recommended me to Dr. Rachel Vogel, a gynecologic oncology researcher at the University of Minnesota. At the time, Dr. Vogel was seeking a research assistant. I worked in her lab for two years, focusing on psychosocial outcomes in gynecologic cancer survivors.

During that professional role, I also applied to various national conferences with my M-ASCEND project and received full travel awards to present my work at conferences in Arizona, California, and Florida. The conferences were the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Scientists (ABRCMS), the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR), and the University of Florida Health Cancer Center Research Showcase. Subsequently, I worked on manuscripts alongside Dr. Vogel and Dr. Jewett. In May 2025, I published my first manuscript as a first author!

These experiences continued to propel my interest in academia, prompting me to pursue my current internship through A-PREP. The work I have done and my passion for research accompany and harmonize symbiotically with my love for primary care and medicine. This sentiment is one I will carry with me into medical school!”