Precious Marie Walker

Ms. Precious Marie Walker is a phenomenal UIC Honors College student that we are proud to recognize as a Black History Maker. Ms. Walker is currently a senior in Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) studying Psychology Pre-medical Science and minoring in Sociology with a focus in statistical analysis. Ms. Walker has done outstanding academic work at UIC, and has been a solid member of the Honors College since she started in Fall 2009. She has been on the Dean’s list in LAS and has received a number of prestigious awards, including the Vice Chancellor Award, the MLK Scholarship, the S.E.E. Scholarship, the Urban Public Policy Fellowship, and membership in the Golden Key Honor Society. She was also a nominee for the LAS Outstanding African American Female Award. Thus, she is fulfilling the promise of her outstanding high school record at Whitney Young Magnet High School and achieving academic success.

Ms. Walker is also an excellent university citizen, with a number of important volunteer experiences. She has been a tutor and mentor to youth and peers in several contexts such as the “Tutor to Youth” program, the African American Academic Network Ambassador Program, the TRIO program, and the Honors College Ambassador Program. The latter is a peer tutoring program in the Honors College, where upperclassmen are matched with incoming new first year students to provide peer mentoring and support. Each of these experiences require reliability and commitment, which Precious certainly has. These volunteer roles support her overarching desire not only to be successful herself, but also to help others be successful through mentoring. In fact, she has a desire to publish motivational work that will inspire others.

Ms. Walker is dedicated to a career in medicine, specifically as an obstetrician/gynecologist. In support of this goal, she is a member of the Society for Future Physicians, and has recently started supervised research collaboration with Dr. Roberta Paikoff in the UIC Department of Psychiatry. She has worked relatively independently to develop a coding scheme to capture the professional interactions of pediatricians who are being provided with child mental health information. Her coding system will be used to examine pediatricians’ attitudes toward child mental health professionals over time. Ultimately, she hopes to use this information to develop her own understanding of physician-patient communication as she continues to work towards her own goal of medical school and clinical practice.

Ms. Walker is described as delightful to work with, creative, persistent and deeply concerned about the community and the betterment of others. In sum, Precious is an outstanding student, role model, community member, and future professional.