Jill Uy, an undergraduate Industrial and Operations Engineering student, shares her gratitude for the friends she’s met at CHEPS.
When I first got offered the job at CHEPS, I was like any other 19-year-old girl going into her first job…anxious about making friends and doing good work. Little did I know that I was about to be given the most amazing team that I now consider lifelong friends.
From Gene’s first “Welcome!” to our leader, Dr. Amy Cohn, insisting we call her “Amy,” I knew CHEPS was a singular opportunity to learn and grow as a person and an engineering student. As CHEPS embraces the core principle of inclusion, I immediately felt seen and heard by the whole team. I wasn’t just another student, female, or white-passing minority—I was part of something bigger. Sure, CHEPS is about the work at the intersection of IOE and healthcare, but it is also a close-knit community. I have step-in moms, dads, and siblings in this beautiful organization. More importantly, I am privileged to call them all friends as well as colleagues.
During my time at CHEPS, I have been involved in different projects requiring the technical work of an intern studying IOE. However, my project involvement has also honed my practice in many of the soft skills needed to coordinate and lead projects. This is made possible by the kind, nurturing environment created and sustained by the CHEPS staff and its students. This inclusive environment has fostered friendships that I will cherish forever, specifically my team members on the Michigan Institute for Clinical Health Research – Clinical Research Ethnography team…nicknamed the MICHR CREeps.
Jill, Goretti, and Nikki cheering the Wolverines to victory against Michigan State. 
Jill and her teammate, Goretti Tran, presenting their MICHR CRE poster at the 2024 IOE Undergraduate Research Symposium. 
Jill and her teammate, Nikki Watson, catching a Michigan football game. 
The MICHR CRE team snaps a pic after touring the 
Jill and Goretti being cat-whisperers. 
Jill, Goretti, and Nikki cheering the Wolverines to victory against Michigan State. 
Jill joins her fellow CHEPSters during the spring-summer 2024 semester in speaking to high school students about their experiences at the University of Michigan. 
Goretti and Jill getting caught in the rain on their way to the hospital. 
Nikki Watson, Jill Uy, Hannah Stovall, Christine Carethers (CHEPS staff member), and Goretti Tran celebrate a successful spring-summer term spent working on improving access to clinical trials for patients in Michigan.
Despite our project pivoting mid-summer, the CREeps persevered to finish the job together. We supported each other through the ups and downs of work life as well as the challenges of home life. Our fearless leader, Christine Carethers, led us through these peaks and valleys and became like a mentor to us, helping us grow both professionally and personally.
Like an invisible safety bubble, the atmosphere at CHEPS is one of home—safe, nurturing, and accepting. As a U-M student, it can be hard to find your place, your people, amongst the throngs of students and organizations. At CHEPS, I feel like I’ve come home to my Michigan version of “Country Roads.” CHEPSters work together, but we also play together—from cookouts to fun runs to aid good causes, we do it together! These are bonds that time and space won’t change.
—Written by Jill Uy, CHEPS Student