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Alex Lombardo '21
Alexandra Lombardo '21
“脑力”如何推动一个苏格兰人通过文科STEM的道路
It weighs roughly three pounds and is made up of as many cells as there are stars in the Milky Way. 它消耗了人体20%的氧气, when awake, 产生的电能足以点亮一个小灯泡.
The human brain, 因为它的复杂性, 至今仍是科学界最大的谜团之一. 但在这个故事中，首先出现的是人类的心脏……
2008年，所有这些七岁的孩子 Alexandra Lombardo 她想成为一名医生, a cardiologist, to be exact, and it was “all heart, 在她的埃尔帕索, Texas home. But flash forward a little over 10 years later to a working neuroscience research lab on the Agnes Scott College campus, and you’ll find an “Alex” whose undergraduate STEM experiences changed the trajectory of her career aspirations forever. It was there while researching neurodevelopmental disorders such as Rett syndrome and schizophrenia that she was unexpectedly introduced to the mysteriousness of the human brain and developed a passion for conducting medical research.
自称为学习者和“天生的探险家”,亚历克斯发现科学领域的未知领域特别吸引人. “关于人体及其工作原理，我们不知道的事情太多了, 关于疾病的发展,” Alex said. “需要有一群人热衷于了解这些未知数, people who are driven and can use the answers to the research questions they’ve asked to ultimately help our community to be in their best state of mind and health to lead their lives. I am certain it is my purpose to be one of those people – a servant to my community by contributing to transformative advancements within biomedical research.”
亚历克斯渴望为她的社区提供帮助，这表明了苏格兰人的本性. According to 妇女科学中心, 艾格尼丝·斯科特女性认为她们在医疗保健领域可以发挥领导作用, in agriculture, in technology, 在本世纪的医学伦理问题上. 阿格尼斯·斯科特学院有三分之一的学生打算主修理科, and the liberal arts institution graduates women in STEM at higher rates than other similar institutions (25% versus 10%).
虽然亚历克斯的医学预科专业是生物化学和分子生物学, her research experiences at Agnes Scott have influenced her plans to pursue neuroscience as a graduate student one day.
It all began during her sophomore year at Agnes Scott when she took a molecular biology course that incorporated an inquiry-based lab under the instruction of associate professor and chair of biology Dr. Jennifer Larimore. This became the first lab course Alex had ever taken that required her to develop her own research project over the course of an entire semester. Dr. Larimore自己的研究被纳入了以探究为基础的实验室, and Alex and her two lab mates were tasked with investigating a cellular system that could be altered in Rett syndrome or schizophrenia model systems. 他们的发现最终以海报形式呈现在 学院春季研究年会(SpARC) and 苏格兰人神经研讨会 他们因此获得了最佳海报展示奖的亚军.
这是亚历克斯对研究新发现的热爱的起点, 她决定申请大学的 STEM Scholars Program. STEM学者计划, provides full-time summer research experiences to Agnes Scott students in various STEM disciplines. STEM Scholars 学生在STEM教师的指导下进行前沿研究, 帮助他们获得STEM奖学金和劳动力领导的基本技能, 同时让他们更好地理解研究人员是如何建立新知识的.
为了Alex的暑期研究经历, 她被安置在拉里莫尔实验室, 细胞神经科学实验室, and mentored by Dr. 她后来邀请亚历克斯成为她实验室的永久实验室助理.
“虽然实验室有一个总体的研究目标, each student assistant also has their own independent assays and molecular experiments that they run, 分析并向博士汇报. 继续。”亚历克斯说. “Most recently, 我们互相帮助，把数据和图像整理成一份手稿, 然后我们把它提交给了同行评议的科学杂志. This experience, among others, has been integral in contributing to my professional development and in helping me to understand where my niche is in STEM.”
With Dr. 作为教师导师, 100 percent of her mentees get experience presenting their scientific work through poster presentations, 24%的人发表了自己的作品. 学员的名字也出现在奥巴马博士身边. 拉里莫尔的研究发表在不少于13种同行评审期刊上，比如 神经科学杂志 and Frontiers in Genetics. “Our students frequently tell of better understanding their career path based on these experiential moments,” said Dr. Larimore，他也是 该学院颇受欢迎的神经科学项目. “In addition, coursework at a small liberal arts colleges enhance a STEM student’s ability to think critically and view science in the context of other topics.”
Alex也从中受益 学院的各种资源中心, 比如在数学和科学资源中心，她向导师寻求指导, 和写作中心 & 在这里她的个人陈述得到了审查和改进. She credits Dr. Molly Embree, STEM指导研究主任, for giving her advice on post-graduate plans and teaching her how to better articulate her research.
“While the primary focus of STEM Scholars Program is the authentic research experience, another aspect that I emphasize to students is the importance of each person's role in cultivating the community they want to work in,” said Dr. Embree. “Sometimes it takes a while to convince students that STEM Scholars Program is not something provided for them but created by 他们，由我们所有人一起. Alex天生擅长创建社区, 从一开始，她走到哪里都这样, of her own accord.”
A prime example of this can be seen in the ways in which Alex has taken advantage of the opportunities presented to her to give back to her field, both on campus and off. 在校园里，作为GEMS项目的成员(创造卓越的数学和科学)， Alex在过去三年一直担任GEMS STEM日主任. This annual campus event brings 20 girls from underserved high schools in Atlanta to the campus for interactive STEM labs, 目的是打开他们对STEM领域潜在职业的思维. Alex handles the logistics of the event and acts as the liaison for the college with representatives of the high schools. Alex hopes that exposure to STEM at such a young age will help to increase representation of women in STEM fields.
Off-campus, Alex is the founder of the Triple AAA Program – the Agnes and Arbor Alliance. As a first-year, 亚历克斯开始在Arbor Terrace辅助生活中心做志愿者, 离校园七分钟车程, 她将在哪里与老年痴呆症患者一起工作, 提供瑜伽和益智游戏等活动. 她很快注意到中心缺少志愿者, 这意味着患者的身体和精神活动减少了. Alex recruited additional STEM Scotties to join her in volunteering at the center every other weekend, 正式形成三AAA计划. Together, the team of six do exercises with the patients or pay them individual visits.
“痴呆症是一种不可逆转的疾病, 但它可以通过持续的身体和精神锻炼来减缓,” said Alex. “我想帮助中心解决他们短缺的问题. 这是一件小事，但可能是我最引以为傲的成就.”
All of Alex’s experiences at Agnes Scott have led her to realize “who she is and what she wants for her future,这是一项研究事业. Her final year at Agnes Scott has been spent preparing materials to apply to a competitive post-baccalaureate program with the National Institute of Health (NIH), where she hopes to work as a researcher for two years before matriculating into a dual-degree MD/PHD program. 她正重重地靠在她身上 SUMMIT 400数字投资组合 to give her application materials a unique visual appeal that in turn will give her a leg up on the competition, 还有她作品集里的文字, 写于二年级, 完美地总结了她在阿格尼斯的STEM之旅, 在这一刻仍然有意义……
“Agnes has taught me that the journey it takes to reach your goals can be more important than the goals themselves. 学习是一个神圣而有力的过程... Learning at Agnes Scott goes beyond the mental processes; simultaneously, 它提供了最困难的挑战和最大的满足感.”
About the writer: Kati Burns Mallows is the Director of Enrollment Marketing at Agnes Scott. When she’s not trying to perform superhuman marketing feats for the Office of Admission while simultaneously drinking copious amounts of coffee, 她喜欢写有创意的小说和诗歌, 当了20多年的作家. 她特别喜欢讲述阿格尼斯·斯科特的斯科特社区的真实故事.
