Unconventional Students at Rice: Stacey Yi

Stacey Yi, a Duncan College senior from Fremont, Calif., majoring in ecology and evolutionary biology, started at Rice University with the desire to spend her life helping other people.

She found many opportunities to do just that. She became involved with Rice’s Pancakes for Parkinson’s fundraiser and Rice’s chapter of Colleges Against Cancer and volunteered at a hospice for patients with HIV and AIDS.

Yi said that through these experiences and the people she met at Rice she learned about Camp Kesem, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to helping children through and beyond their parents’ cancer treatment. She worked to help found a Rice chapter, something that she said was very meaningful to her.

“Camp Kesem is just so dear to my heart,” Yi said. “I lost my mom to cancer when I was 10, and I had very limited support throughout that.” Back then, Houston did not have an organization like Camp Kesem, Yi said, so the organization is “very important and special” to her because she wants to make sure it’s available to other kids at their time of need.

Yi said the camp would not be what it is without the driven nature and genuine passion of Rice students.

“I think that’s the mindset of all Rice students,” she said. “We may be a small school, but we dream big, and Rice encourages us to do that.”