Mia Heyward is an undergraduate student at Georgia State University (GSU), double majoring in Public Policy and Africana Studies, with plans to graduate in May 2025. She graduated from Jackson-Reed High School (formerly known as Woodrow Wilson High School) in Washington, DC in 2021 and began working in Dr. Burnet’s lab that same year through the Honors College University Research Assistantship Program. Mia led and presented a research project for the GSU Undergraduate Research Conference, where she won awards for Outstanding Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and second place in Social and Behavioral Sciences. In addition to her work in the SCALER Lab, Mia is a student assistant at GSU University Career Services and serves on three undergraduate student club organizations at GSU. Aspiring to be an attorney, she hopes to integrate her love for Africana studies and anthropology into the legal field. Mia plans to use her experience at SCALER to bring a more holistic view into the legal field, where race, culture, socioeconomics, history, and lived embodiment intersect with policy and government both locally and abroad.