I have always learned best by asking why and then trying to find out for myself.
Growing up, curiosity was a big part of who I was. I wanted to try everything: music, art, sports, languages. It took me a while to realize that what I enjoyed most was not simply learning new things, but understanding how and why they worked.
At Colby College, that curiosity found a home in research. I had the opportunity to work across different areas of science, and somewhere along the way I realized that the subject itself mattered less to me than the process of research. I loved following a question, figuring out how to approach it, and seeing where the evidence led me. Research became the space where my curiosity felt most natural. As I explored different fields, I also began to understand what kinds of questions fascinated me most. By my senior year, I found myself especially drawn to molecular biology and to how events at the cellular and molecular level can shape much larger biological processes.
I graduated from Colby with a degree in Biology and a concentration in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and I see that experience as the beginning of a much longer scientific journey. I am now continuing that journey in the Patel Lab, where I am approaching molecular biology through the lens of development and expanding the way I think about how organisms form, change, and regenerate. I hope to carry what I learn from this experience into graduate school, where I would like to explore some of the questions that interest me most, particularly those involving stem cells and regeneration. Now that my journey at Colby has come to an end, I am excited to continue growing not only as a scientist, but also as a person, in the Patel Lab, where I will approach molecular biology through the lens of development.
My aspiration is to carry everything I learn from this experience with me into graduate school, where I hope to explore some of the questions that interest me most, particularly those involving stem cells and regeneration. Perhaps one day, I hope to bring what I have learned back to my home country, Mexico, and share that knowledge and passion for science with future generations.