I was born and raised in Cali
Colombia. My parents owned a mechanic shop in a nearby town called Buga where I
went to school and lived until the morning of February 9th 1999 when my family
relocated to the United States. At first, it was a struggled to adapt to a new
culture but most difficult of all was learning a new language from scratch. Six
months went by and I was able to logically and soundly communicate—so much that
I gave my first presentation in English for my elementary school class—the
topic was the life of falcons. In doing my research for this project I became
enchanted with the biological sciences. It was to me an amazing feeling to
realize how much we really know about the world yet how much still remains to
be known and from that moment on, I decided that I too will add to the “what we
know” scale. My passion for science was strengthened then and a whole window of
possibilities was opened to my awareness. In the year 2000 I was accepted to Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics
high school where I was fortunate to meet a great group of instructors that
saw potential in me and guided me in making the most out of it. In 2004 I
graduated with a scholarship for academic excellence and was accepted to CUNY
Queens College. Being the first person in my family to enter a higher education
institution, I made it my goal to set the standard for all my younger family
members. In 2008, I graduated with double majors in the honors neuroscience
program and psychology and double minors in biology and philosophy.
I was then accepted for the Master’s program in the same institution where I
was the first graduate of the behavioral neuroscience Master’s program.
Upon completion of my Masters in 2010, I was accepted to the CUNY Graduate
Center PhD subprogram in neuropsychology. Currently, I am a second level
PhD student having completed all the courses required and the first level
examination. My focus at the moment is on conducting scientific research on an
animal model of autoimmune/inflammatory diseases which largely forms the basis
of my future dissertation work.