Irma Ortiz, whose parents immigrated to the US from Mexico, is the first in her family to graduate from college. Today, Irma is a Ph.D. graduate student in IIGB geneticist Linda Walling’s lab, where she and her lab-mates identify and deploy gene-based strategies for insect resistance in plants.

Ortiz grew up in Panorama City, Calif., and attended James Monroe High School in nearby North Hills. Quiet by nature, she is driven by a determination to succeed. An early challenge for Ortiz was the unavailability of members in her family who could advise her on college applications. She turned, therefore, to her high school for support, meeting with limited success. She also solicited advice from university recruiters who visited Monroe High. “Finally, I researched the requirements to qualify for the University of California campuses as well as the scholarships available to students underrepresented in the sciences,” she said.

“This was a turning point in my life. I don’t think I would be in graduate school if it weren’t for all the mentors I had at UCLA. Now, I want to give back by providing career and research mentoring to underserved undergraduate students.” “At UCLA I heard about UCR’s NSF CAMP Bridge to the Doctorate program,” she said. She applied, got accepted, and joined UCR in January 2012.

Ortiz’s honors include a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship “honorable mention,” accorded to meritorious applicants. Because of a fellowship she received from the CAMP Bridge to the Doctorate program for her first two years and a Ford Foundation Fellowship for the next three years, Ortiz can focus on her graduate work without financial burden.

She has found useful the workshops the CAMP Bridge to the Doctorate program offers on teaching and mentoring students. “I mentor an undergraduate student in the Chicano Link Peer Mentor Program  once a week,” she said. “I attend meetings held throughout the quarter by the UCR Chicano Student Programs on how to be a good mentor to first generation college students.”

What drew Ortiz to agricultural research are the strategies scientists use to enhance plant success and plant resistance to pests and pathogens. “I see the difficulties some Mexican families experience when they have a bad season,” she said. “My grandparents worked on agriculture most of their lives. My parents depended heavily on that income. How then could I not work in agriculture?”