Former biology major Alizandra Castillo finds her path by trading medical school plans for a career exploring how clothing shapes the human mind.
Alizandra Castillo didn't plan on studying apparel. She planned on attending medical school.
Growing up in Mission, Texas, in a family rooted in health care, the pre-med track felt less like a choice than a given. She arrived at Texas Tech University as a biology major with her path seemingly set.
It didn't stay that way.
"I was on the pre-med route in high school too, and once I got to college it just started to take a toll on my mental health," Castillo said. "It made me really depressed and down."
Her freshman year became a turning point. Academically, she held on. Personally, the weight of the coursework and its direction wore her down.
Two unexpected sources helped shift her course: a job as a campus tour guide and an academic advisor who introduced her to the university's Apparel Design and Manufacturing program. The combination gave her a window into a field she had never considered.
"I had never even sewn before," she said. "I was very nervous at first."
But she stepped in anyway and then found something she hadn't expected.
Castillo discovered that apparel design let her bridge creativity with the science of human experience, a combination that echoed her earlier interests without the weight that had come with them. Her research now centers on how textiles and clothing intersect with the human psyche, particularly as they relate to trauma and sensory response.
She is drawn to questions about how fabric textures and materials can influence emotional regulation and memory—including in trauma survivors.
"I want to look at how the brain reacts to different fabrics and how certain materials can create calming or triggering responses," she said. "It's about understanding how what someone was wearing can be connected to their experience and how apparel can influence the human psyche."
That kind of inquiry, she said, keeps her connected to the medical interests she carried into college, just expressed differently now.
Along the way, Castillo added three minors: business management, biology, and women and gender studies. She said those decisions came naturally once she had more room to explore.
One part of her journey she didn't anticipate was becoming an advocate for her program itself. Apparel design, she said, is frequently overlooked or misunderstood, and helping others see its depth has become meaningful to her.
"Being able to advocate for the program and bring awareness to it has been really rewarding," she said. "Pre-med is very straightforward, but this has allowed me to be creative, and it's been both humbling and rewarding."
The shift cost her time. Changing majors extended her academic program, a fact Castillo discusses without embarrassment.
"It's OK to fail," she said. "I'm not embarrassed to admit how much I've failed. It actually added time to my program, but I'm so thankful for that, because I wouldn't have experienced what I have now if I hadn't gone through it."
Looking ahead, Castillo hopes to land an internship in a major city and continue her research at the intersection of apparel and human psychology. She envisions a career that draws on both fields.
What began as a detour has become, she said, the most purposeful direction she's found yet.