"A project that took my new passion of looking into the 'little things' and fused it with an old one: the environment."
About My ProjectTaking my newfound desire to understand the inner, hidden molecular workings of what we take for granted or cannot see with the naked eye, I knew I wanted my senior project to explore bacteria and their emerging resistance to antimicrobials. In search of a narrower subtopic under the umbrella of antibiotic resistance to analyze, I was advised by Mrs. Babette Shoemaker, a microbiologist with over 20 years of experience, who recommended that I look into the increasingly concerning pollution of antimicrobials into the environment. After looking into the nuances and current state of research in the field through my literature review, I noticed that studies on environmental antibiotic pollution were limited in scope and few and far in between, mainly due to the resource- and cost-intensive nature of surveying water and soil samples for the presence of antibiotics, which hampers our capability to know the extent and persistence of the pollution in the environment. Using my knowledge from a recent microbiology course, my research project was thus born, setting out to address the need for cheaper, less intensive testing methods for antibiotic pollution by testing the limits of the Kirby-Bauer protocol and modifying it for the purpose of detecting environmental antimicrobials. Mrs. Shoemaker accordingly served as my expert scientist, guiding me through a project that took my new passion of looking into the "little things" and fused it with an old one: the environment.
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My WhyThe origin story of my passion for the environment begins in the classroom of my fourth grade teacher. I was called by my Gifted Resource Teacher to go to her room for what I thought was going to be another small group session working on algebraic critical thinking with chess pieces and a balance. That session was indeed about critical thinking—just not for math. Instead, it was about wind turbines.
My Gifted Resource Teacher called me over to her room to discuss KidWind, a competition built around creating a model of a wind turbine and understanding the finer details that go into maximizing their efficiency in the real world. However, at its core, KidWind was a vehicle to get students interested in renewable energies and passionate about being conscientious and considerate of the environment. Luckily for me, that vehicle reached its destination. From being able to explore the latest innovations and technology in the field of renewables on the AWEA Windpower Expo floor to meeting the director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, KidWind truly opened my eyes to the possibilities, issues, opportunities related to the environment and stoked a permanently-glowing fire for it. While I no longer participate in the competition, I still find my ways to give back to the environment, such as with organizing a project with peers to put up sand fencing near the Lesner Bridge or participating in the occasional park or school campus cleanup. Fast-forwarding a few years to tenth grade, where my interests have diversified to include a passion for medicine invigorated by the COVID-19 pandemic, my I-Search project dealt with everything about vaccines: herd immunity, their relationship with the immune system, the different types of vaccines, and more. There, I discovered my fascination with understanding how things function at the molecular level and truly comprehending the mechanisms at work in the processes we take for granted, such as vaccines. The I-Search, combined with a rigorous AP Biology course that took a step-by-step approach to teaching each metabolic process of the cell and an exploratory microbiology class that delved deep into the invisible prokaryotes all around us, set the stage for my research project. I currently plan to major in biology or the allied health profession of Medical Laboratory Sciences with the ultimate goal of going onto medical school to be somewhere in the field of medicine. However, where exactly in the medical field is still unknown for me, whether that be as a scientific researcher, a practicing physician, or another career currently unbeknownst to me. Regardless of where my path ultimately takes me, this project will serve me well into the future ahead, giving me either my first of many steps in academia or a unique perspective for patients to hear on an unfortunately inevitable public health concern. |