In life, you will encounter many extraordinary individuals that have the potential to open numerous doors of opportunity – if you allow them. Growing up, getting a job, and living a stable life were the kind of talks that were stressed in my immediate household of a single mother of three girls. Although, not as privileged as other individuals that surrounded me in grade school growing up, I have always inquired about my purpose in life – my goals. I made it my mission to find my niche by trying numerous tasks such as tutoring, dancing, singing, and volunteering. Every task I attempted gave me an inside feeling of satisfaction but something was still missing. I was given the unique opportunity to attend a high school that incorporated …show more content…
This pivotal experience in scientific research inspired me to choose scientific research as a career. Following that summer, I applied to the University of Florida and was fortunate enough to receive a full scholarship to support me during my undergraduate years. As an undergraduate I had the opportunity to conduct research though an internship with the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Florida. I worked with Dr. James Maruniak, striving to sequence the full mitochondrial genome of fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda, to help decrease the pestilence of crops being destroyed by this insect. Using a multiple sequence alignment of mitochondrial DNA from various Spodoptera, a clustal was developed to help design primers. I approached this by using polymerase chain reactions PCR to effectively amplify regions of the mitochondrial DNA for sequencing. My goal during this project was to sequence the complete mitochondrial genome of S. frugiperda. The following year I received the opportunity to work in Dr. Eric Triplett’s laboratory to determine the enumeration and primer sensitivity for the growth and detection of Liberibacter crescens BT-0. Liberibacter crescens is a bacterial species that is known for causing Huanglongbing (HLB) and Zebra