I came into college knowing what I wanted to do from day 1 – I knew my major and I knew what I wanted my career path to look like. But I didn’t always know what I wanted my future to look like. It all started my junior year of high school when I was put into a class that I did not want to be in - Scientific Research, Methodology, and Experimentation. My college counselor had recommended the class after I had been denied into my school’s two-year thesis program that I had all my sights set on doing. It had never been a question on whether or not I would get in with my teachers and counselors, but low and behold I didn’t get in. I was devastated and I could not believe that I had to take this class because it was “the next best option” – I wanted a class that was my best option. My mom kept saying “things happen for a reason and there is a reason you are taking this different path.” Little did I know that it would be the best thing that ever happened to me.
Back to junior year: I didn’t know a lot about the class other than you got to design and carry out your own research. It was not as advertised as Thesis and not a lot of people got involved because so many of the high achieving students at my school went after Thesis. I was nervous and scared and honestly pretty pissed off at my situation. I was not what you would call a “scientist.” Sure I loved doing experiments as a little girl, but let’s face it I was not the lab coat wearing kind of girl. The research was hard. Finding a topic was hard. Problem-solving equipment that I had to use was hard and I was just trying to get through the year while all my friends were involved in Thesis and I was the lone survivor in this other class. Science was not my thing and I didn’t think I would be good at it. But something clicked one day when I was staying after school to troubleshoot and try to get my drosophila to react to the peppermint and lavender oil. At this point my results had all been the same – they were all dying (not thrilling stuff). As my trial ended that day, I went to the computer and I saw results that were promising and differed among my groups. I vividly remember my teacher looking at me and saying “this is science Estelle you’re starting to find things!” From then on it feels like history – a starry-eyed girl who had just fallen in love, because at that moment I had fallen in love with science.
In my senior year, I continued the program that paired me with a professor at LSU where I got to work every day in their lab on my own project that was in the bigger picture of what the lab studied. I got to work with Dr. Kevin McPeak in his chemical engineering lab on a project that looked at the Synthesis of Au nanoparticles and ZnO nanowires for Water Purification. That year I had so many opportunities in my first real lab experience – I worked with graduate students, I was part of the new lab opening, got to present and place at Science Fair, presented and made it to the final 8 out of over 100 presentations at the Louisiana Junior Science and Humanities Symposium and so much more. This experience led me to do an independent research project with the Biology department at BSC this past summer. I worked on campus with Dr. Gibbs in her lab to Investigate the Role of the Adult Microbiome in Larval Success in the Sea Urchin Lytechinus variegatus and I presented my work at the Krulak Poster Expo right after school started in the fall. It further solidified that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.
The science world is tough and it is even tougher to be a woman in the science world – especially research. It requires a lot of self-discipline, lots of failures and dead ends, giving up on some social outings, but it is all worth it to me. Making decisions to study instead of going out or go watch a movie with my friends is tough, but it makes it easier with my friends who have my back and support me in my endeavors. Sometimes it is as simple as my friend Alexandra surprising me with a Starbucks refresher when she knows I have been in the library for hours on end on a Sunday studying or looking through my Women in Science book that Eliza got me for big little when I get discouraged about my future (and briefly want to change my major to something less time-consuming!) Mostly it looks like Megan, Liz, Eliza and I sitting in the library keeping one another company and (probably without knowing) them giving me the confidence that I will accomplish my dreams of researching in my own lab one day and making a change in the scientific community. I would never have been able to make it this far with the support of my friends who believe in me and my potential probably more than I do 90% of the time. I know that I am not alone in my journey and I know they will be with me supporting me and celebrating all my small accomplishments and hopefully some big accomplishments one day!
AOT,
Estelle
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