As a sophomore at the university I received the Goldwater Scholarship, a prestigious scholarship awarded to student researchers at a national level. After I received the Goldwater Scholarship, I was invited to an awards dinner, where an esteemed professor congratulated me before offhandedly remarking, “Barry Goldwater would be rolling in his grave right now.” While the comment was flippant, it reminded me I was not the type of person expected to receive this award. After all, Goldwater would probably not have approved of me. I am a bisexual Indian woman who constantly applies to scholarships and works multiple part-time jobs to pay my tuition and bills. My very existence would vex him on multiple accounts. This and similar experiences, reinforced by the stories of others, cemented my decision to work towards increasing accessibility in scientific fields and in research.
Now, one of the important parts of my life is my work as a chemistry tutor at CLUE, a drop-in tutoring program hosted by UW Academic Support Programs. There, I create a safe space for scientific learning utilized by a diverse group of students who often cannot afford private tutoring. Working one-on-one, I hope to foster interest in chemistry by teaching clearly and enthusiastically while encouraging students to brainstorm other applications of the material. My varied research background also enables me to reassure uncertain students about exploring research to find enjoyable topics and environments. Additionally, as a new chemistry teaching assistant, I am also able to directly experience the teaching aspects of academia.
As an undergraduate student, many of the important milestones in my life have been related to research. One of the most important mentors I have had is Dr. David Ginger. He encouraged me to be the person I am today and apply, apply, apply to scholarships, fellowships, and awards even if I don’t think I will be accepted. At the very least, I learned, I would gain experience with applications of the sort that will continue popping up throughout my life. This became habitual, over the past few years, I have applied to as many scholarships, internships, and job applications as I could that have been relevant to my interests. I have even won a few awards. Additionally, in his lab I began an independent research project that taught me highly transferable skills such as experimental design, troubleshooting, and data analysis using Python. After working in Dr. Ginger’s lab, I transitioned into Dr. McGuire’s lab at the Fred Hutchinson Research Center. In this lab, I gained many new skills involving immunological techniques and learned about the environment in a small lab group. Then that summer I completed a bioinformatics research internship hosted by Dr. Yang’s lab at UCLA, where I learned to complete single cell analysis in R and looked at glial cells in the context of Alzheimer’s Disease. Through these past two experiences I gained an interest in the intersection of immunology and neuroscience and am now planning to research glial cells in the context of neurodegenerative disease as a graduate student.