I'm an Arizona person. I was born in New Orleans, but we moved here when
I was 4.5. So, so I went to uh ran to Solano Kindergarten, which is right
in Phoenix on Missouri and Seventh Avenue. And uh actually, it's between
Central and Seventh, I think. But, and then I went to Solano uh grade
school uh which is on 15th Avenue in Missouri. And uh uh it went through
sixth grade and that's where I um got to be very close to our librarian.
This is Helene Carroll and then I went to Grand View, which was for 7th
and 8th grade because Solano, I didn't have the 7th and 8th. And from
there went to central high school and there weren't many kids from Gray
who went to Central most went to West High. So I had to, again, find new
friends, but that was good. That was really good for me. Um Because again
, I was very shy and um I needed to actually push myself a little bit. So
I went to Central um had a great experience there. I had, I'd say one of
the most influential teachers. I had a couple of influential teachers. I
had one was my eighth grade English teacher who was really tough and uh
taught me a ton. And to, even to this day, I'm an incredibly uh detailed
editor and grammar is extremely important to me. I kind of fallen by the
wayside, sadly for me. But uh so I actually um have a strong reputation
for that to be being able to uh really be a, a strong writer and editor.
And I really attribute her, um, beating me on the head for that. Uh And
then I had a high school chemistry teacher. Um I took advanced chemistry
and then I became his teacher's aide and his name is ARN Arnold Bright.
And he had a really big influence on me because he was just so passionate
about what he did and what I think the influence was find that, you know,
don't settle for something else, find something that you're passionate
about because you could just see it in everything he did. And I loved
being his, his student assistant, chemistry, chemistry. Yeah. Bye now. Yep.
Um, but I, you know, I'm a curious person. I always say that and I think
that's important in the business I'm in is you have to be curious,
particularly when I work in medicine. You know, if I, and I've got to
really wanna learn science, I've gotta love science. And if I can't really
talk to a benefactor about the role of immuno of T cells in immunotherapy.
Then I'm not gonna get anywhere. Um So, yeah, so then I went to Central,
um my mom really was insistent that we all go to college. Um But I really
was realistic to know that I, even if I was admitted out of state, I
didn't want to graduate with huge debt. And uh I really felt like I could
get a strong education in the state. So that's, I limited myself really to
Arizona State and to ru of a and as I said, I visited both campuses and
just felt so much more comfortable at Asia. I just felt like that was the
right fit for me, which it turned out to be and went to central high
school. And, uh, when I was a junior, my best friend and I, we had, there
were three of us, actually, two of us decided we wanted to go to a SU and
one was gonna go to U of A and that the last day of our junior year, one
of my, um, friends, one who was going with me at a SU um, passed away. And
so my other best friend and I went down and looked at U of A and looked at
a SU to decide because we knew we wanted to stay together. And, uh, we
just had totally different experiences when we visited the two campuses.
And I, my best friend decided she'd come here to issue with me. So we, um
, entered in.