Full circle - from eager undergraduate student to walking in my undergraduate mentor’s shoes

Abstract:

Though my curiosity about the world around me starting when I was in grade school, my spark for science was not ignited until I started research as an undergraduate at a small public liberal arts school. With excellent mentorship, exotic travel, and bonds formed with other students across the nation, I was hooked. This led me to a career endeavor of working at a similar all-undergraduate institution where I too could ignite that spark in a student, as was done for me. However, what was not expected was me taking the position of my undergraduate mentor upon his sudden and unexpected death. Here, I present my somewhat nontraditional path through academia to reach my ultimate career goal with the unfortunate twist of losing my first academic mentor, and now sitting in the position that he once held.