Growing up I always wanted to be a doctor, I would have never thought that I would be pursuing a master’s degree doing a research project. During my Junior year of college, I took a class with Dr. Kellar and learned about the projects his students were working on. I found this interesting and ended up joining his lab to get research experience. After my first year in the lab I liked what I was doing and once I graduated, I was offered a job to a private research company. With these different research experiences, I was interested in pursuing a master’s degree. I was fortunate enough to be a recipient of the RISE NIH funded fellowship that allows me to pursue my master’s degree. I hope to use this experience to help decided what I am going to do next. I have an interest in pursuing my PhD in cancer stem cell research or pursue medical school and specialize in Ophthalmology.