Jennifer Akosa is from Newington, CT but has close ties to Nigeria, where her parents lived up until two years before she was born. A pre-pharmacy major and graduate of Newington High School, Jennifer enjoys playing the outside hitter and defensive specialist positions in volleyball. She has taken part in the HCOP Mini-Medical/Dental High School Program, which provided her with the opportunity to listen to lectures on topics such as pharmacology, cardiology, and oncology, and she has worked at UConn Health as a research apprentice, studying how proteins such as E-cadherin and Actin manipulate cell direction and adhesion. She has also volunteered at the Newington Veterans’ Hospital in urgent care and cardiology.