Fall 2023 - The McNair program, a great group that helps underrepresented students find opportunities in research. I was first introduced to the McNair program by Anay RIP 2023 WE HOPE YOU'RE DOING AWESOME IN PHARMACY SCHOOL and what do you know, a year later, McNair reached out to me again with another match, this time WELCOME ALANA!! Alana hails from a very small town south of Tucson where she commutes from, every single day, an hour each way, while she listens to Nu Metal from the early 2000s. Alana spent the summer of 2023 with us as part of her 6-week McNair gauntlet, we took on single-cell proteomics together. She went from some geek off the street to a scientist by the end of the program. Alana has a very keen eye, not only for when Taco Bell brings back Nacho Fries which she swears are the best fries but I mean really Taco Bell has the best fries what is that they obviously do not because they don't call it French Fry Bell, but also for when she saw me day in, day out, processing thousands of mass spec files, an observation that led her to propose the opportunity that she join the lab hourly to process mass spec files for me. And you know what, it's been fantastic. Not only does Alana help relieve me of 4,000,000,000 hours of work, she also keeps Austin company in the freezer box that is the mass spec lab. Alana has done really well in the McNair program, so much so that she has decided to....wait for it....APPLY TO GRAD SCHOOL. That's right people, we got one! We have managed to find a future scientist! TAKE THAT MEDICAL SCHOOL YOU CAN'T HAVE THEM ALL HAHA! So, we'll do what we can to help Alana achieve her goals of becoming just like me, an academic scientist who's constantly awake at night trying to solve yesterday's problems and then tomorrow's problems and then the next day's problems! YA! GO ALANA! In her spare time Alana drinks way too much caffine and wonders why she can't sleep at night while she plays dungeons and dragons video games and watches Midsommar and Nightmare on Elm St.
UPDATE - Summer 2024 - Alana B stayed with us until after she graduated Spring 2024, finishing the Summer of 2024 working for the lab, and then sailed off into the great blue yonder. She got a job with Cord Blood Registry, the company that banks stem cells acquired during birthing or something like that, they crypopreserve the cells. Leah and I did it with Sophia, same company, ironically. Alana is considering an advanced degree here in a bit, let's find out what happens....