She is a Philosophy major, a part-time office manager at the Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership, and a mother of a four-year-old son. And Tiffany Haines plans to become an attorney.

After earning her Associate’s degree in Criminal Justice from Bay State college (where she was class valedictorian), Haines came to UMass Boston as a One Family Scholar.

Haines says her participation in the scholarship program, which provides flexible financial support and leadership training has “focused my studies and career goals.” She’s gained first-hand knowledge about pertinent social issues, like family homelessness and the legislative processes, which “have informed my studies and helped me to become a more engaged and successful student.”

She recently traveled to Washington, D.C., with representatives from One Family Scholars and UMass Boston’s Center for Social Policy for the release for a national study, Bridging the Gaps, which analyzed the gaps in public policies intended to support low-wage working families in Massachusetts.

Haines’ favorite Philosophy classes include Symbolic Logic, Metatheory and Kant. Nelson Lande, Haines’ professor and advisor, says she is “an utterly superb student in every conceivable respect. She is extremely bright; she is extremely conscientious; and she is extremely well motivated”

Haines graduates in August and plans to work full time while studying for the LSAT and applying to law school.

Read the entire interview here.

Psychology major Tony Masiello was working in the finance department of a large corporation when he decided to pursue a more meaningful and fulfilling career as a child psychologist. He left his job and enrolled at UMass Boston.

"One of the most valuable lessons I learned was the importance of getting experience in undergraduate research, especially since I planned on applying to graduate schools in pursuit of a Ph.D. My first year working in a Psychology lab got me excited at the potential of doing research. Later, I received the honor of working with Dr. Alice Carter developing research projects and seeing them through to the very end. This experience helped me to design a research project that looked at the effects of a mother's prenatal anxiety on the developmental outcomes of children, which I believed would significantly contribute to the field of developmental psychology. To date, we are almost done with the project and will be writing it up to submit to psychology journals for publication.”

Erica Mena '06, was a student in the University Honors Program, was editor of the student literary journal, The Watermark for two years, Student Senate president in 2005, and spent the past summer studying at Oxford University.

As winner of the English department’s Peter Brooks Butler scholarship, she was awarded free summer school tuition and transportation. Erica says of her time there: “Oxford was magical. The history, the knowledge, it just hangs in the air.” Her professors, or tutors as they are called there, “were superb. Brilliant, engaging, challenging and insightful...they were also extremely demanding.”

Erica, who graduated in December 2006, is the Senior Editor of Arrowsmith Press and plans to pursue a graduate degree in Literary Translation.