 | Zachary Pimentel West Warwick SMILE | PhD Student, Cell and Molecular Biology University of Rhode Island SMILE encouraged my love of science from a young age. When it came time to take harder, more complex science courses in high school and college, I was prepared and, most importantly, interested in the subject matter. Now as a Cell and Molecular Biology PhD student, the foundations of my day-to-day work such as finding creative solutions to answer questions and following my curiosity are emphasized in the SMILE program. |
 | Njoki Gitahi South Kingstown SMILE | Njoki Gitahi is a communication designer in the New York office of the design and innovation firm IDEO. “I credit my experience in the sciences (and with SMILE especially) with informing my design process—it turns out the scientific process also involves making hypotheses, observations, and experiments!” |
 | Rachel Carley South Kingstown SMILE | Pharmacy Doctorate (2020) University of Rhode Island Brown University Ph.D program “SMILE has given me the opportunity and the encouragement to pursue my dreams of science. SMILE gave me the confidence in my ability as a young scientist so that I could move forward in my career and purse research. Without SMILE I would never have had the opportunity to do real experiments outside of class. This gave me the ability to explore my creativity and curiosity. The nourished my abilities and gave me the resources to truly understand what it was to be curious in a lab. SMILE also gave me opportunities to see what was out there in the world regarding industry, academic and other fields where people like me could flourish. I was awarded the Amgen biotechnology award in my senior year because of SMILE.” |
 | Aisha Ashraf South Kingstown SMILE | Pharmacist, The Miriam Hospital "Smile belongs in every school, in every state." |
 | Matthew Sheehy South Kingstown SMILE | BS Mechanical Engineering (2019) NUWC |
 | Jimmy Li West Warwick SMILE | Systems Engineer Naval Undersea Warface Center |
 | Pedro Raposo Central Falls SMILE | BS Mechanical Engineering, BA Chinese University of Rhode Island |
