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I was raised in West Michigan where I attended a small Christian high school. I chose Taylor because of the diverse Chemistry department faculty, which included a professor for each major branch of chemistry. During undergrad, I was able to make lifelong relationships from professors to classmates to my wing-mates. Graduating Taylor, I was a Chemistry BS major with minors in Mathematics and Physics. Currently, I am a second year graduate student at the University of Georgia pursuing a PhD in Chemistry under the direction of Prof. Henry Schaefer.
During my time at Taylor, I was able to be a part of a lot of different departments and groups. From getting to know Dr. Stan and my fellow Chemistry majors in our weekly Women of Chemistry meetings to hanging out with the Math department during Pizza and Problem Solving, the most valuable part of my time at Taylor was getting to build such strong relationships with my professors, classmates, and wingmates. Especially unique was the community many of my fellow STEM majors and I had. From working on tough homework sets together to watching movies at someone's apartment to cheering each other on during summer internship applications, having a community that understood each other's goals and wanted to be part of each other's lives was very impactful. We still try to keep in contact with each other as we've spread across the country after graduation and even during the busyness of post-undergrad life, I think we'll always know we are sending our love and support for each other from afar.
Many people wonder why I would choose such a small school to do my undergrad, but I would argue that I have many more opportunities because of choosing a small university. I had professors who truly knew who I was, not only professionally but also personally. When I wanted to apply to research opportunities or learn more about a specific topic, they were always supportive and helped point me in the right direction. I did over two and a half semesters of computational chemistry research at Taylor which led to opportunities to do NSF-funded summer research at the University of Mississippi and the University of Minnesota. Not only that, due to the guidance of my undergrad research advisor, I had received two awards from the Women's Chemist Committee of the American Chemical Society. From being a Physics minor and doing some research with Dr. Kiers, I am a third author in an article published to the American Journal of Physics. When it came time to apply to graduate schools, I was able to get very strong letters of recommendation which directly helped me get into the graduate program at the University of Georgia where I am now. Overall, the impact of my undergrad research advisors has helped guide me toward the field I am currently in, computational quantum chemistry, and is helping me decide what I want to do after I complete my PhD.
The foundational core doesn't always seem prevalent in the field of chemistry, but it more so helps in making you aware of the bigger picture. I have become more aware of how the foundational core classes have impacted how I teach and how I mentor the undergraduates I work with. All the soft skills of being a scientist are more deeply affected by the things I learned during my time at Taylor than my core research pursuits.
Get to truly know your professors and don't be afraid to seek and pursue opportunities. Much of my professional success in undergrad came from asking about and looking up opportunities and then figuring out with my professors how I could best go after them.
