Sabrina Assoumou knew she wanted to be a doctor from a young age. During college, a summer program at the National Institutes of Health introduced her to the scientific side of medicine, and she added research to her career goals. As she pursued this ambitious path, however, she had very little company. An immigrant from the Ivory Coast, Assoumou was often one of the few women — and the only woman of color — in her classes and workplaces in the United States. “When you don’t see other people who look like you, it’s a little hard to keep going,” she says. “There’s so many times when I was like, ‘Is this the right thing for me?’” Read about why a ‘near peer’ can be the best kind of mentor at the link in our bio.