When Jay Simms BF ’27 returns to his hometown of Fayetteville, Tennessee, strangers still stop him in the grocery store and ask, “Aren’t you the guy who got into Yale?” 

As the first person from his county ever to attend an Ivy League institution, Simms has become something of a local celebrity, and he takes pride in how much his achievement means to the community that raised him. 

“Most people in my graduating class didn’t go to college, and none of those who did left the state,” Simms says. “I was on the radio, on television, and in the newspaper. It meant a lot to our town.” 

But beneath that excitement was uncertainty: Simms knew the academic environment at Yale would be different from his high school, and many of his peers would be coming from schools in which going to college after graduation was not just celebrated, but expected. 

So he was thrilled to receive an invitation to First-Year Scholars at Yale (FSY), a six-week program designed to introduce incoming students, many of them the first in their families to attend college, to the academic and social environment of Yale.

“FSY introduced me to the types of classes I’d be taking at Yale, and taught me strategies for studying and time management,” Simms says. “But most importantly, it gave me a group of people to lean on. It meant a lot to have friends and mentors before classes even started, especially peers who also felt like fish out of water at a place like Yale.”

Easing the Transition 

Simms recalls the program as a six-week whirlwind. He took English and math courses for credit, met faculty members who still serve as mentors, and bonded with more than ninety members of his incoming Yale College class. 

“We all connected over the fact that we were going through the same things, like worrying how smart we sounded in seminars or navigating the homesickness that came with being away from home for the first time,” Simms says.  

The relationships Simms formed through FSY provided crucial support as he began his first year at Yale and inspired him to return to the program as a counselor in the following two summers. 

“As a counselor, I try to create the same welcoming and supportive environment that I experienced,” he says. “Everyone feels a little overwhelmed in the beginning, but by the end of the program they have so much more confidence in the fact that they do belong here. It’s so meaningful being part of helping that transformation happen.” 

Creating Pathways 

The lessons Simms learned through FSY about finding belonging and embracing new challenges continue to shape his time at Yale. As an ambassador with the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, he focuses on outreach to rural students, helping them navigate the same uncertainties he once faced.  

“Where I’m from, a lot of people don’t even think about leaving their hometown or home state because they assume that they can’t afford to,” Simms says. “A place like Yale can be very daunting given the sticker price, but for students with backgrounds like mine, it’s often more affordable than the school they might be looking at in their area.”

At the same time, Simms is pursuing a rigorous academic path as a pre-med student double-majoring in neuroscience and chemistry. He also works in a neuroscience lab conducting research on how parental perceptions influence children’s experiences of anxiety. 

Through both his classes and research, Simms is preparing for a career in medicine while remaining committed to giving back. 

“Yale has provided me with opportunities I could never have imagined,” Simms says. “My goal is to make the most of those opportunities and show others that no matter where they come from, they too can reach beyond what they might think is possible.”