I am from the Asheville, North Carolina, a place that I will always consider my home. It is through my experiences that I found the key ingredients for success:
Respect, Communication and Endurance
I played sports throughout my childhood, which was a great experience for many reasons. One of the most important things that I learned from being a part of a team is how to get along with people who are different than myself. There is power in being different and there is power in bringing people from diverse backgrounds, who have different ideas and experiences, together to accomplish a common goal. One key ingredient to success is respect. As the team captain I learned how to be a successful leader; listen to others, even if they have different opinions, and try to find a compromise. Our team was victorious because we delegated, effectively communicated, and trusted one another in every game and every practice. Our coach used to say 'When you put on those jersies you are all a part of something bigger than yourselves. Respect the team and respect eachother."
Our respect for one another and our team never wavered.
Throughout my young adulthood I waited tables. I started working full-time during my junior year of high school to pay for my own groceries, monthly cell phone bills, and car payments. If you have never waited tables, let me just say that is not for the faint of heart, especially during a Sunday brunch service at IHOP. Serving pancakes and eggs seems easy but it is soul crushing. Pancakes and eggs get cold very quickly and it is easy to confuse an over easy egg with an over medium/easy egg (and customers are always right). I knew how good or bad a brunch service would be when I saw who was working the line (cooking) and who was working in the front of the house with me. Some were easy to communicate with and would listen to what I and my guests needed, while others only cared about their guests or turning over tables quickly. Serving packages and eggs at IHOP taught me the value of communication.
Once I finally finished with my undergraduate from the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, I went to Appalachian State University to acquire a Master's in Biology. My research was very exciting and gave me an opportunity to learn field and lab techniques and is where I began developing my bioinformatic skill set. My advisor was a great advisor but she had little experience with the sort of bioinformatic tools that I was tasked with using. I spent an entire summer figuring out how to perform sequence processing and filtering with one software, only to be told to change to a new software just days after I successfully completed the analysis with the first software. There were many other times during my master's that challenged my resiliency and will but I learned the value of endurance. To endure: to continue to exist, to tolerate. Science requires endurance.
Respect, Communication and Endurance
I played sports throughout my childhood, which was a great experience for many reasons. One of the most important things that I learned from being a part of a team is how to get along with people who are different than myself. There is power in being different and there is power in bringing people from diverse backgrounds, who have different ideas and experiences, together to accomplish a common goal. One key ingredient to success is respect. As the team captain I learned how to be a successful leader; listen to others, even if they have different opinions, and try to find a compromise. Our team was victorious because we delegated, effectively communicated, and trusted one another in every game and every practice. Our coach used to say 'When you put on those jersies you are all a part of something bigger than yourselves. Respect the team and respect eachother."
Our respect for one another and our team never wavered.
Throughout my young adulthood I waited tables. I started working full-time during my junior year of high school to pay for my own groceries, monthly cell phone bills, and car payments. If you have never waited tables, let me just say that is not for the faint of heart, especially during a Sunday brunch service at IHOP. Serving pancakes and eggs seems easy but it is soul crushing. Pancakes and eggs get cold very quickly and it is easy to confuse an over easy egg with an over medium/easy egg (and customers are always right). I knew how good or bad a brunch service would be when I saw who was working the line (cooking) and who was working in the front of the house with me. Some were easy to communicate with and would listen to what I and my guests needed, while others only cared about their guests or turning over tables quickly. Serving packages and eggs at IHOP taught me the value of communication.
Once I finally finished with my undergraduate from the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, I went to Appalachian State University to acquire a Master's in Biology. My research was very exciting and gave me an opportunity to learn field and lab techniques and is where I began developing my bioinformatic skill set. My advisor was a great advisor but she had little experience with the sort of bioinformatic tools that I was tasked with using. I spent an entire summer figuring out how to perform sequence processing and filtering with one software, only to be told to change to a new software just days after I successfully completed the analysis with the first software. There were many other times during my master's that challenged my resiliency and will but I learned the value of endurance. To endure: to continue to exist, to tolerate. Science requires endurance.
