What I Do I am an associate scientist doing Cellular Process Development. We are finding ways to change the body's immune cells to fight cancer in a more precise and effective way.
Why Engineering? I found a passion for engineering in learning and problem solving. I found chemistry fascinating and had a drive to help people.
School Days I graduated High School from Liberty Common High School, a small charter school in Fort Collins, CO, and received my bachelors degree in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD.
My Day At Work My typical day at work involves a lot of hands on time in the lab, whether that is at my lab bench doing molecular biology work, or in the bio-safety hood culturing primary and immortalized cell lines. Outside of the lab, I spend my time notebooking experiments to make sure that all of my work is understandable and repeatable, as well as in meetings to plan future experiments, learn about the latest papers in scientific journals, or discuss data from completed studies.
Best Part I enjoy that my job is hands on over sitting at a desk, I am constantly interacting with colleagues and sharing my ideas, as well as contributing to generating data that may one day change a patient's life.
Challenges My most challenging moments of becoming an engineer were at the beginning of college. I went from being one of the brightest students in my high school to being average at an amazing university. I struggled to feel that I was doing well enough in the new atmosphere. A professor helped to get me out of this need-to-achieve mindset by telling me something along the lines of "80% of male students perform worse than they expected to their freshman year will continue to pursue and earn an engineering degree while only 20% of female students will stay in the major." This gave me the drive to push beyond my own insecurities and become another statistic. I am so happy that I chose the harder route and am now doing what I love.
My Family I got married to my highschool sweetheart after we both graduated college in 2018, and have two 8 year old maltese dogs (little 8lb fluff balls).
Want to be an Engineer? I would say to never let a bad grade or experience make you think that you are unable to pursue your passion. Everyone has hard days, and it's how you respond and grow in those moments that define the kind of engineer you will be.
Hobbies Outside of work I enjoy running, walking my dogs, finding tasty new restaurants, and watching TV shows or football games with my friends.