Team

How I got into science

I never saw myself getting into science when I was younger. I was always into painting and cooking, and assumed I would go to art school or culinary school. Then I took chemistry in my sophomore year of high school and fell in love. Unfortunately, after coming to BU as a chemistry major I realized that chem and calculus (mostly calculus, honestly) definitely weren’t for me. I switched over to psychology and knew that is where I belong. Trying to understand the human mind rarely results in concrete or consistent answers, which is probably why I love psych so much. I would like to pursue my Psy.D. and work with PTSD and trauma, and when Steve gave a guest lecture in one of my classes and talked about his lab’s research into fear memories, I saw my opportunity to start myself on the right path.

I am not a neuroscientist by any means, but I am thrilled to be doing something so unbelievably cool. Working in this lab has taught me that it’s okay to ask the wrong questions, or get an answer that isn’t what I’m looking for, because that’s just the way science happens. Even when we don’t get the results we want, we can still learn from them, because that’s why we do what we do.

Non-science biography

I grew up in almost-upstate New York, but after moving to Boston I came to the conclusion that I’ll never be able to live outside of a city again. I love to travel, cook, and paint, and now that I’ve graduated I’ll finally have time to do all three again!

One thing I’m sorry I’m not sorry about

I love pineapple on pizza