Apr. 8, 2026
Contact: Cary Littlejohn, carylittlejohn@missouri.edu
Photos by Sofia Ortiz and College of Engineering
At the University of Missouri, graduate and professional students drive innovation, fuel groundbreaking research and shape the future of their fields.
Across nearly 150 degree programs, students collaborate with world-class faculty to tackle real-world challenges, elevating Mizzou’s impact far beyond the classroom.
In celebration of National Graduate and Professional Student Appreciation Week, discover why Mizzou stands out as a top destination for students eager to learn, lead and achieve.
A community that encourages success
Ever since she was 8 years old and gave her parents a PowerPoint presentation on the most important organ in the body (spoiler: she chose the brain), Sofia Ortiz has known she wanted to be a doctor.
Now in her first year at Mizzou’s School of Medicine, Ortiz is realizing her dream surrounded by a supportive community.
A 2025 graduate of Mizzou’s College of Health Sciences, Ortiz felt prepared for the rigors of medical school thanks to the solid foundation she received as an undergraduate student. She praised Mizzou’s MedOpp Advising, which provides undergraduates with pre-professional advising for numerous medical professions.
Ortiz credited Darcy Holtgrave, the program manager of MedOpp Advising, for helping her before she even enrolled as a freshman.
“I told her I wanted to go to medical school but didn’t know where to start,” Ortiz said. “Nobody in my family went to medical school. And she met with me as much as I needed over the years. She came to my white coat ceremony.”
Ortiz also praised the professors in the School of Medicine for making complex topics accessible, as well as Mizzou’s overall approach to medical education.
“It’s called patient-based learning, or PBL for short,” Ortiz said. “Mizzou was one of the first to implement the model, which a lot of schools have adopted since. It’s so beneficial for clinical reasoning skills. Other students have said attending physicians will recognize a Mizzou graduate because of their clinical reasoning skills when they start residency, based on how they approach cases and demonstrate their thought processes.”
But what really makes Mizzou’s School of Medicine so special are the people.
“Everyone warns incoming medical students that it will be like drinking from a fire hose, but what nobody told me was just how much fun I would have in medical school,” Ortiz said. “It’s such a great time because all of my classmates make for such a nurturing and supportive community.”
Practical knowledge to drive real-world solutions
Graduate students pursue their degrees for various reasons. While some want a career in academics and others want to advance in the corporate sector, some are lifelong learners who seek ways to push themselves and develop skills and knowledge that can help them elevate their existing work.
Mauro Lemus Alarcon, PhD ’25, is one of those lifelong learners.
As an enterprise performance management architect with Mizzou’s Division of Information Technology, Lemus Alarcon felt that a doctoral degree was the most natural next step for him.
Lemus Alarcon spent five years pursuing his doctorate in computer science in Mizzou's College of Engineering specifically for the purpose of providing him with research opportunities that would hone critical reasoning skills that he could bring back to his job.
“The kind of research projects that I was involved in applied immediate solutions to real-life problems,” Lemus Alarcon said. “I saw that I could take advantage of that approach. Doctoral studies complemented my work, and my work complemented my doctoral studies.”
He’s excited to use those skills to improve technology usage at Mizzou, especially as artificial intelligence (AI) becomes common in the workplace.
“Vendors are saying, ‘You have to have AI. Everybody is using AI.’” Lemus Alarcon said. “It’s very popular right now. But it may not be the best solution for all issues. This is where my research skills come in. I feel like I can evaluate the technology in a more critical way, thanks to my education.”
Lemus Alarcon praised the collaborative environment among the graduate students in the College of Engineering at Mizzou.
“It’s one of the best parts of graduate studies here,” Lemus Alarcon said. “We all work on multiple projects, and we collaborate with each other on those projects. And Professor Prasad Calyam is the backbone that provides the support and mentorship that makes all of this collaboration possible.”
For him, what sets Mizzou apart are the numerous possibilities for interdisciplinary partnerships.
“There are a lot of opportunities to work with different teams,” he said. “The chance to work with the School of Medicine or with other departments in the College of Engineering creates these incredible opportunities. It allows researchers from both fields to work in parallel and look for a common solution.”
One recent collaboration allowed Lemus Alarcon and team to work with researchers from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Together, they developed a powerful new platform that uses AI to help researchers access instruments, such as scanning electron microscopes, that are located outside of their physical labs.
Lemus Alarcon said Mizzou provided exactly what he was seeking for his graduate school experience: an opportunity to marry computer science research with the practical challenges he encountered as a professional.
“Pursuing my doctorate has been the most rewarding part of my career,” Lemus Alarcon said.
