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Professional Plan
 

 

"Be the change you want to see in the world." ~Mahatma Gandhi
   
  As a 6 year old girl I knew I wanted to become a doctor.  I had compassion for friends who had been hurt and was always curious about how things, especially the human body, worked.  In the past 15 years this aspiration has remained central to my education and future plans.  I still have a passion for assisting those who are less fortunate than myself and have a desire to learn what can be done to mend a body that is not functioning properly.  At this point I am most interested in tropical medicine with an emphasis in global public health.  I also have interests in emergency medicine and if I pursue this path I would love to be employed by an inner city or county hospital.
   
  My dream career is to be an epidemiologist for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, GA.  The past two summers my family has taken a vacation to Atlanta so my sister and I could tour the CDC and meet a few of their top notch epidemiologists, including the head of their food borne illnesses division. 
   
  During summer of 2006 and over Winter Break during my junior year I had the opportunity to intern at Whirlpool Corporation in Benton Harbor, MI.  I worked in the Chemistry, Materials, and Analytical Sciences department.  It was a fantastic learning experience to be able to design and complete my own experiments.  I had to problem solve as difficulties arose and was exposed to how science truly works.  My research was confidential so I can not further explain exactly what I did.
   
  In the fall semester of my junior year at Albion I began working as a microbiology laboratory preparation assistant for the biology department.  I have been responsible for making various types of bateriological agar and broth as well as maintaining a functioning laboratory.  Through this job, I met Dr. Ola Olapade, with whom I began a directed study research project this semester.  I am studying the correlation between temperature fluctuations and the abundance of coliform bacteria in the Kalamazoo River.  In Aprl, I will be presenting the results of my study at the Elkin Isaac Research Symposium.
   
  Between my junior and senior years I received funding from the Foundation for Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity to continue my study of the Kalamazoo River.  During this summer, I lived on campus and continued my research project from the previous semester as well as added testing the isolated coliforms for antibiotic resistance.