On the contrary, I'd say she would really like to become more of a UX practicioner. She is more excited by the idea of implementing UIs rather than just doing user research.

To reframe the question around this. Her master's degree is from the Humanities and around research design, with her focusing on UX research. She wants to pivot towards frontend development and UI design but is afraid that she won't be able to get in due to her degree not being from a comp sci/tech university. Is it possible to break in just through projects and a decent portfolio?