Growing up in small-town Hood River, Oregon, I was always fascinated the parts of skiis and bikes, perplexed by the ways the surrounding mountains and river changed with the seasons, and enthusiastic to ask questions about my curiosities. In school, I was most excited by the scientific wonders discussed in my science classes. Inspired first by the experiments conducted in my classes and later by the research being conducted at Oregon National Primate Research Center during my time as a volunteer just after graduating high school, I decided to pursue a Biology degree with a focus on research at Gonzaga University.
I realized my strong desire to become a scientist when I was offered the opportunity to work as a fellow in Dr. Sergio Ojeda’s neurology lab at the Oregon National Primate Research
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I was awarded a position in my university’s research program under mentorship of Dr. Kirk Anders in yet another enriching research experience studying one of my most prominent passions- bacteriophage. Matching Dr. Ander’s visions, this experience felt like an authentic independent research project. I began in the spring of my junior year and continued through the summer months and into my senior year. After burying myself in the lab’s literature and soaking up my mentor’s knowledge of promoter activity in bacteriophage, I was able to complete two projects concerning the activity of predicted promoters in a bacteriophage. Initially, I struggled to make any significant progress, as shown through my many unsuccessful PCR reactions and baffling sequencing results; however, by the end of my first semester of research, everything began to work and the results came flooding in. Knowing that I had learned about a new field of science, had persevered through failure to make progress toward my research question, and even made new friends and connections made my experience extremely