Hello! My name is Emily and I’m from Oceanside, California. Now I'm a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Amazon region of Ecuador, working in public health. I attended Mission Vista High School and quickly found a love for biology and medicine when I enrolled in Mrs. Rosen’s PLTW Biomedical Science Pathway.
I completed the full series and went on to study biology at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. The PLTW classes built a strong foundation for my biology education and put me ahead in my degree on numerous occasions. I was on a pre-health track and became a nursing assistant my junior year, where I received invaluable patient care experience. I continued this role after graduation, in the cardiac intensive unit at Scripps Hospital La Jolla.
My college career wasn’t all about health, however. My favorite professor at Cal Poly was a behavioral ecology specialist, Dr. Gita Kolluru. I worked in her fish lab for 3 years studying the mating behaviors of Cuban fish, girardinus metallicus. My senior thesis compared the mating approaches of the different males, who vary in color.
