A Queens student is attending a prestigious university as part of a robust college program for low-income community college students.
Tabia Tarannum, 20, is a Kaplan Leadership Program(KLP) Scholar and a 2025 graduate of LaGuardia Community College. Tarannum began her junior transfer year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill this August, pursuing a degree in general biology on a pre-med track.
Additionally, Tarannum was recently named a 2025 recipient of the prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship through the Kaplan Educational Foundation and received a full-ride scholarship from her university.
Tarannum is part of the 18th cohort of the Kaplan Educational Foundation’s Kaplan Leadership Program (KLP). This year’s cohort includes 11 community college students across the five boroughs who were accepted into the 2024-2025 academic year program.
This year’s Scholars earned admission to more than 25 top schools nationwide. Other Queens members of the cohort include Melanie Jerez, Queensborough Community College ‘24, who is transferring to Brown University, and Sabreen Qaisar, Queensborough Community College ‘25, who also attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
KLP helps high-achieving, low-income community college students complete their associate’s degree, successfully transfer, and earn a four-year bachelor’s degree at the nation’s most prestigious colleges and universities.
Tarannum, a first-generation college student from Bangladesh, is pursuing her dream of becoming an anesthesiologist and researcher dedicated to improving individualized pain management treatments and advancing healthcare equity worldwide.
She said she was drawn to medicine because of her parents’ nonprofit clinic, the Samina Bari Foundation, in her home country. She quickly became interested in anesthesiology after reading an article about anesthesiologists being regarded as unsung heroes in the medical field.
“There’s movies, articles, books, and everything on surgeons, but for [anesthesiologists]…we never know that. But actually, they’re the hero. And they’re in the ER for very critical moments,” she said.
“ And then the article also said they were referring to [anesthesiologists] as heroes, and that word, that phrase really stuck to me, and I’m like, I want to be a hero. That’s when my inner self told me, Tabia, you’d love this experience. Just go for it. I know you can do it,” she said.
Tarannum said she was interested in attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill because of its robust medical program. “ I saw it is great for medical school, great for research, and they have a very strong biology program,” she said. “I love community service… and the community service is very great. So this is the thing I looked at, and I’m like, okay, this is the school I’m gonna apply to,” she said.
She’s already started classes and is volunteering at the university’s hospital as a patient relations coordinator. “ I am learning more about how to socially engage with the patients and also with the other people working in the hospital. So that’s my first step. And now I’m looking to shadow some, at least an anesthesiologist here in the hospital,” she said.
Tarannum said that although the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill wasn’t originally on her radar, she quickly fell in love with the school. “ Their community here is so nice. Also, it’s very nice; coming from New York, where everyone is always busy and never asks for anything. If you need help here, everyone is so friendly,” she said.
Additionally, the college junior said she’s been adjusting well to her new environment.
“ Classes are very big, but I just make sure every time I’m going to the class, I’m sitting right in front of the professor, so they’re gonna look at me. So now most of my professors know me because I sit in front of them,” she said. “ And then they just don’t want us to pass our exam. They want us to really know what we are doing and really understand everything, and explain to each other.”
Tarannum said that when she told her parents that she received a full scholarship to UNC, they told her to take the opportunity immediately. “ I said, hey, I got this university in North Carolina, and they’re giving me a full ride. They’re giving me money for transportation, food, and everything. And then my parents were like, just go there,” she said.
Tarannum credits the support of her mentors and advisors in the Kaplan Scholars Program for getting her to where she is today. “ I would say I cannot imagine myself getting the scholarship or [going to] UNC or anything because the path was very unknown to me,” she said. Like I am an immigrant, I moved here very recently. Everything I don’t understand here, things are very confusing. I sometimes struggled to figure out my role.”
“But then Kaplan was always there to navigate the way and always helped with everything. Like, even sometimes I would just reach out to my advisors …and they’re always there to help me. So I’m very grateful.”
For Tarannum, pursuing her educational goals is a dream come true. ”Getting into the Kaplan Leadership Program was the best part of my community college journey,” she said.
