Portraits of Impact

Jacob Roy BS’24 grew up learning about The University of Texas at Dallas. As a high school student in Plano, he knew he wanted to go into medicine, so he joined the Future Health Professionals club at his school, an organization which also has a chapter at the University. After a group of UTD Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) participants visited his school to share their experiences, he was determined to follow his older sister and become a Comet.

Along with his acceptance, he was granted an Academic Excellence Scholarship (AES), a merit-based scholarship offered to incoming first-time freshmen, covering four years of undergraduate studies. Roy’s scholarship has covered all three years of his undergraduate study and will continue to support him in his first year of graduate school. For students like Roy, who received $8,000 a semester, the financial assistance can have a significant impact.

“The scholarship covered all of my undergraduate studies plus a little bit extra per semester, which is very helpful, especially with books and fees,” Roy said. “Having that kind of funding and not having to worry about loan payments or working just to make ends meet has let me explore other areas and become a leader within UTD.”

Roy’s scholarship meant something deeper than just a check. When he discovered the Student Ambassadors program, he felt as if he found his place to give back.

“I have been the recipient of so much at UT Dallas,” Roy said. “Not just financially, but also in terms of experience from the people I’ve been able to meet and the connections I have made in all my classes and communities. I wanted to give that back to the University because I really do feel a sense of belonging here.”

Student Ambassadors serve as the face of the student body to alumni, donors, faculty, staff and other community members. Roy currently serves as the Recruitment and Tours Committee chair and will be named president of the ambassador program in fall 2024.

He is also active within the School of Natural Science and Mathematics, where his lab is located. The Functional Genomics Lab, led by associate professor Dr. Tae Hoon Kim, focuses its efforts on using a genetic approach to curing cancer, which would eliminate some of the negative side effects current medicine can cause, such as hair loss.

“A lot of chemotherapy medications identify the cancer cell by looking at how quickly things are growing and multiplying,” Roy said. “This is why a lot of patients end up losing their hair,  because hair cells also quickly multiply and grow. Our genetic approach would be able to have a little bit more specificity in targeting just the cancer cells we want to target.”

His specific project within the lab looks at squamous cell carcinoma, which often present themselves in the head or neck regions. These are intensely aggressive cancers that depend on sugars to grow, which helps cancer cells multiply at a rapid pace.

“My work specifically looks at how we can manipulate those enhancer regions to actually decrease the amount of sugar transporters in those cancer cells,” Roy said. “This effectively will help kill that cancer and stop it from multiplying in other areas of the human body.”

The efforts of the Functional Genomics Lab are noticed across the science and local communities. Organizations such as the Goldblatt Foundation have even helped fund researchers like Roy.

“I believe that investing money, time and resources into students is one of the most secure investments that you can make financially,” Roy said. “The student population at UTD specifically is amongst some of the most talented, brightest and strongest leaders in their community and everything they do. With the donations and resources given, that’s the only way students can accomplish as much as they do.”

Roy started his master’s program in public affairs in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences in fall 2024. After completing his graduate studies at UTD, he hopes to pursue a degree in medicine.

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