My Journey in Science

Adriana Garcia

 

I despised science in high school. My instructors’ words seemed hopeless, as I could not decipher the code of science into a language that I could understand. After graduating high school, I purchased a one-way ticket to San Francisco and there was no going back. I left the small town of Atwater, California to pursue my passion in art. Upon arriving in the city, I immediately enrolled in a graphic design program at The Art Institute of California.

While my creativity was promising, the reality of tuition set in and I was forced to drop out and attend CCSF. Here, my goal was to take general educational courses for transfer credit. After exhausting my options with English, math, and art, the moment finally arrived when I had to take a science course. Based on my past experience, I knew that the course would be challenging and in order to succeed I had to give the course my full attention. With this, something unexpected happened: I loved it! My new maturity was all it took to understand the language of science. Not only did I understand it, I excelled in it. As my curiosity for my new found love blossomed, I continued to take science courses and knew that my path had taken a new direction as my major had shifted from graphic design to biochemistry.

 

While at CCSF, I had the desire to understand science on a deeper level so I participated in the NIH Bridges to Baccalaureate program at San Francisco State University; a paid summer research program that was guided by SFSU faculty members. It introduced me to basic lab techniques, as well as taught me how to design and carry out my own experiments on a variety of model organisms. I found that I enjoyed doing research, so much so, the following year I participated in independent research at SFSU. I was given my own research project under Dr. Raymond Esquerra. Here, I carried out biochemical research, specifically on protein-ligand binding. My lab was interested in understanding how electrostatics and sterics surrounding the binding site pocket influenced Nitrite binding in heme proteins, using myoglobin as a model system. My efforts were recognized as I was awarded a two-year fellowship to continue my research at SFSU.

 

Since starting my project, I have presented my research at National Conferences, community colleges, as well as to my peers at SFSU. One of the most memorable moments was when I presented a research poster at SACNAS National Conference in San Antonio, Texas. This meeting inspired a friend and I to start a new SACNAS chapter at SFSU. Here, our mission is to encourage minority students to pursue a degree in science related careers. Although I have already had a vast array of experiences, this is only the beginning of my journey in science, as I am scheduled to present twice at the Experimental Biology Meeting in San Diego, California in April 2014. In addition, I have been accepted into the Summer Research Training Program (SRTP) at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), a top research institution in the country. Here, I will be assigned a new research project; closer related to my career interest in the area of drug therapeutics. My journey in science was not a conventional one, but all it took was curiosity to get me to where I am today. I encourage all with an interest in science, to seek out as many opportunities as possible, because you never know where they will lead.