When I was young my Mother would often be invited to come present in my elementary school classes. The reason? She was an Astrophysicist working for NASA. At the time I didn’t fully appreciate what it meant for me growing up to have such an immediate role model of a woman who was not only pursuing a career in STEM but excelling in that career. My Mother always made sure I knew that I could do absolutely anything with my life, and so when my passions developed for biology and marine life, she encouraged me to follow through and peruse that excitement. I never once doubted that I could do so, that science could be a career choice or something I could excel in. As I grew, I began to recognize more and more the social pressure that exists that discourages girls and young women from even considering STEM, let alone engaging in it enough to discover a passion and drive. At first, it seemed so ridiculous. Why would anyone think that? Why would anyone believe that? After all, my whole life such things had never been in question and even during this time the sheer fact my Mother existed kept such ideas as a distant peculiarity. An odd peculiarity that could be easily dismissed. But, as one does, I continue to grow, and to learn, and I started to grow too large for the barrier my Mother had always actively worked to from such toxic ideas as. I started to feel the weight of societal norms and expectations for the first time, and I hated it. I still loved science, still wanted to be a scientist (like my Mother) but now I could see the difficulties laid out ahead of me on that path. I was still determined to walk it, but I could, with the wisdom of years, see how much harder it would have been to have the determination to do so if I had not had a lifetime of knowledge that I could. My Mother was an direct and immediate example that even if it was difficult there was nothing that could actually stop me from pursuing STEM and building a life of discovery and learning. It was then that I was able to look back and understand just why my Mother was always being asked by teachers to come in and speak to us in my youth, and why she always made the time to do so, even with everything else going on in her life. I had my Mother with me every day of my life to be an example that opened the door of what I could be. Many of my classmates might have only had that one day to see that this was something that was truly possible for them, if they wanted to chase it. I chose to go into STEM because I never doubted I could, and I intend to continue in STEM because I know that I can, and I know that someday I’ll be able to be the person standing there and letting my existence show someone else that they can do this too. That they are allowed to be passionate about science, and that if they want to go into STEM, nothing anyone else says can actually stop them.

Our oceans are on fire. The ever warming climate is causing increasing ocean temperatures altering the habitats of every marine species on the planet, and nowhere is that more prominent than on the worlds coral reefs. When I was ten years old my mother brought me with her to a research conference on the Big island of Hawaii and I got the chance to explore a healthy thriving reef. The vibrant colors and the sheer number of fish seared themselves into my memory and ignited a passion that has led to pursuing an education in marine science. However, when I was finally able to seek out tropical waters once more as an adult I was met with a far different sight. The changing climate had bleached those bright colors from the corals and left fields of skeletal rubble in their wake. At first I was confused, believing that perhaps nostalgia had simply made those memories from my childhood into more than they were. However it did not take me long to learn that, no, the thriving reef communities I had been blessed to witness as a child were dying out; under threat from rising ocean temperatures, waves of diseases, oceanic acidification, among a seemingly ever growing list. I was devastated. Then, I was angry. Then, I decided that neither of those emotions were helpful and that if I wanted things to change I needed to get to work. I had already realized that my passions lay in the marine sciences, but I had been struggling to identify the specific field of study I wanted to pursue. I had just found it. My undergraduate degree had been in Bioinformatics, as it is a skill set needed in every field, and I brought that skill with me to the University of Miami's Marine Conservation MPS program, which enabled me to enter the PhD program where I am currently working to study the viruses that infect coral. It is an area of research that we have only recently developed the technology to delve into, and the knowledge uncovered will serve as a vital foundation to restoration efforts regarding response to disease outbreaks, which are currently a leading cause of reef mortality in the Caribbean. I intend to finish my PhD and continue in the field of coral health and conservation because I want to see those reefs from my childhood again and I want to be able to share them with others. It is a goal that will take work, but one that I am proud and determined to be a part of, wherever that determination takes me.