CHAPEL HILL – It was during a visit to UNC-Chapel Hill during his senior year in high school that it started to sink in with Nestor Ramirez.

“It was like, ‘Here’s what the buildings look like, and here’s what the dorms look like,’” Ramirez, now a research education analyst at RTI International who designs student surveys, says in the accompanying video.

The lively culture and sense of social justice at Chapel Hill felt like the right fit for Ramirez.

“My research involving underrepresented and underserved student populations is really born from some of that inspiration I got as an undergrad, where I wanted to make sure I was giving back,” he says.

“I kind of decided quickly as a graduate student to focus on populations of students who are like myself – who are first-generation college students, who are underserved… and seeing what are the barriers to college access?

“Some of the things that they’ve told us about involved feeling like they didn’t have that support network… or feeling like they might miss home, or that they don’t think they can afford it,” he says. “What can we do to alter that?”

Ramirez’s undergraduate experience led to a graduate certificate, pursuit of a doctoral degree and a burgeoning career at RTI International. And he understandably feels very much indebted to UNC-Chapel Hill.

“If there’s anything I learned at UNC-Chapel Hill, it was really just understanding how to live and work in a space that was radically different than the one I grew up in,” he says.

“It also speaks to the UNC System writ large.“I think we have an amazing set of public colleges in this state – both at the two- and the four-year level – that are able to give students that kind of experience and are better able to inculcate them with that kind of understanding of what it means to be a college-educated member of the work force and of society.”