CCRA | CC Research Ambassadors

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You never know where one email might take you. One email landed me a spot in a lab, a scholarship, a work study job, then another few scholarships, a research class, a few publications, and so much more. To say the least, one email changed the course of my undergraduate education. I started college 4 years ago thinking that I would be on a path towards medical school. I thought I would take the sciences, do clinical hours, and then dabble in a lab. Well, after sending one email to Dr. Erin Barnhart my freshman year, the reminder of that year, and every semester following became a pursuit of basic science knowledge. No longer am I planning to go to medical school. Now, as I face graduation in the coming weeks, I look forward to my job in Dr. Barnhart’s lab next year and, PhD programs in the biological sciences after that.

To take a few steps back, as a first-year student on zoom, I took a course that introduced me to the research happening on Columbia’s campus. After one of our sessions where Dr. Barnhart presented, I reached out to say thank you for presenting and that I miss cell biology (as I was taking general chemistry). After trading a few emails, we set up a meeting. After what became the most intense interview of my life, I was introduced to a graduate student in the lab who taught me image analysis. From my bedroom 2,000 miles from campus, I learned the ropes of what became the pillar of research. 

My image analysis work became the basis of my Laidlaw Scholarship application. My work that summer then became the basis for a work-study job, which led to a publication, which led to a Columbia Career education grant and continued to open up doors. Through all of this, I gained experience in image analysis, microscopy, a suite of wet lab techniques (Drosophila husbandry, dissections, genetics, etc.), computational analyses and coding. When I look back at my years at Columbia, I cannot imagine the semesters or summers without these skills, without the lab, and, indeed, without the fruit flies. The later became central not just to my research but all too often to my persona.

This is not to say that one email can cause an avalanche. Rather, it can set in motion a rolling stone that must be continuously pushed and monitored. One email can open a door, that may lead to another that then again may reveal a different path. Between each door is, as always, hard work and determination. Yet when I look back at my trajectory, I realize how fortuitous this entire path was. How much of it was happenstance and how much one email really did make a difference. This all to say, I await with poise and anticipation to see where one email might take me next.