Coming from the deep southern tip of Texas, I am very excited to be here working in Music City for the SCA.
My collegiate years have been spent studying at South Texas College, Baylor University, and the University of Texas-Pan American. Even though I knew from a young age I wanted to go into the biological sciences, I decided to join the Dual Enrollment Engineering Academy at STC during my junior year in high school and ended up graduating with an Associate of Science degree in Engineering before I graduated high school. Following that I went on to study at Baylor and eventually ended up at UTPA. In December of this year, I am set to complete a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology with a minor in English at UTPA. In my brief stint at UTPA, I’ve been involved with several research projects that have furthered my interest in biology and in research. My research has ranged from how climate change is expected to affect lizards in Mexico to sequencing and manipulating the genome of a couple of strains of Bacillus thuringiensis. Upon the completion of my degree, I would like to work in a lab for a few years and return to graduate school to complete an MD or Ph.D. The ideal focus for my research would be in trying to cure infectious diseases.
On my spare time, I try to keep myself pretty busy by working out, keeping my adrenaline pumping, and in general just living life. I workout quite a bit now because I have decided to take on the task of completing an Ironman triathlon. The Ironman triathlon is the world’s toughest endurance event comprised by a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and a 26.2 mile run. I’ve done marathon distance runs (26.2 miles) before but never a triathlon so this should be interesting. Nashville will definitely be a great place to get a good training base with all the hills in the area. When I’m not training though, I plan on dancing the night away to all the live music that Nashville has to offer because just like the Texan stereotype, I love country music.
This is my first experience with SCA and I’m very excited to develop myself and to prepare myself to be a great leader in the future.
