As a premed student, Stony Brook was the best choice for me. It has a hospital with volunteering and research options, so it would be easy for me to find opportunities. Biology offers so many different routes I can take.

I don't have to stick to that box of careers that I knew before. Now I have a lot more to choose from. My first research experience was my second semester with Professor Pochron.

She put us into groups and told us we would be working with worms but that we were to create our own experiments. And it just started something in us like, wow! We have the freedom to make our own experiment and try something different than everyone else.

That really opened up my point of view and made me realize that I can pursue what I want to find out about through my own research.