Tina Pavlovich, ’20

Graduation Year: 2020
Program: Mathematical Economics and Spanish Language & Literature
Trajectory: New York -> MIT

Mathematical Economics and Spanish Language & Literature

I was born and have lived in New York my whole life. My parents are both Croatian immigrants, so my childhood was filled with rich food, travels back to the motherland, and beautiful culture. I have one older sister who is soon to graduate college. We weren’t close when we were younger, but once she left for school, we started to bond more, as she was one of the only people who could deeply relate to me and my experiences.

Growing up, I never knew what colleges I was interested in attending — until somebody asked me sophomore year of high school. I had vaguely heard about MIT, so I said that it would be pretty cool to go to school here. After that, I started to actually research more about life and academics at MIT. I read forums, the Admissions Blogs, and I started to really become interested.

My dream in life is to help people. As of right now, I would like to work at a non-profit, or NGO, or any organization that focuses on helping humanity and our environment. I recently interned at a company, Draper, helping them with their humanitarian and environmental projects. Working with teams passionate about making positive impacts on our world was a thrilling experience. My time at Draper was of the most amazing learning experiences I have had so far.

I am so excited to meet all the incoming First Gen students at MIT. Being a First Generation college student is hard, but MIT has some amazing resources to help us transition and help us feel like we can achieve anything. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions about FGP or being First Gen at MIT!