Aaliyah Alexander is a final-year undergraduate student in the Department of Geography and Geology, majoring in Geosciences.The Faculty of Science and Technology, The University of the West Indies, Mona is honoured to share that she has been admitted to the University of Texas at Austin, where she will pursue a Ph.D. at the Jackson School of Geosciences with full financial support. The five-year program will focus on research in marine paleoecology.

This opportunity began in June 2025 during fieldwork for her undergraduate thesis in Rio Bueno, Trelawny, where she met the team from GEOPAths GO: Jamaica. The program is funded by the NSF and aims to build an Earth Science Learning Ecosystem in Jamaica and at the University of Texas at Austin. She spent the next three weeks conducting research with the team, during which she connected with Dr. Rowan Martindale, an Associate Professor at UT Austin in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.

Her participation in GEOPAths GO: Jamaica 2025 was a pivotal moment in her academic and professional development, as it fundamentally shaped her perspective on pursuing graduate studies. Subsequent conversations with Dr. Martindale, some of her lecturers within her department and the wider UWI community, Dr. Thomas Stemann (deceased), Dr. Debbie-Ann Gordon-Smith, Matthew Rahamut, Dr. Camilo Trench and Head of Department, Dr. Sherene James-Williamson who helped guide her decision to pursue graduate research.

and her Head of Department further solidified her decision to pursue graduate research.

She sees this opportunity as a blessing from God, and is grateful for the mentorship and collaboration that made it possible.