At a young age I already loved the scientific world. The story of my love for science starts with my mother, a Brazilian immigrant, who arrived in the United States with an unfinished physics degree. One of her he strongest motives to move to the USA was to raise her daughters and instill in them the love for learning and science. She taught us through discovery. Since we were inquisitive children, she created experiments to help answer our questions, and by doing so awakened the curious minds of her daughters. I remember asking her where a rainbow comes from and her going out to get a prism to teach us about light. We would spend time in parks and nature, exploring and searching. She would collect leaves with us, and we would learn to identify trees. She would buy really old tech equipment and take it apart with us and put it back together. She wanted to make sure we loved math, so she practiced math with us in fun and enjoyable ways. My mother wanted to instill in her daughter’s passion to go after what we wanted to learn and study. I also loved science class and my science teachers made me feel like science was part of my life. When I was in middle school my mother went back to work, and she bought us a one-year pass to the Museum of Natural History. My middle school was close to the museum and when she couldn't pick me up from school or when I had a half day, I would go and sit in a different wing of the museum, learn, and absorb all that was around me. In high school my teacher and advisor Lola Oyediran, inspired me to love biology even more. She encouraged me to go to a program at Smith College called Summer Science and Engineering Program. There, I was inspired even more to continue my trek in the scientific field. I also joined the Venture Scouts in my neighborhood in Washington Heights/Inwood, where we learned about nature and enjoyed the outdoors. I was lucky to be selected to participate in volunteer work with the Central Park Rangers and Fordham University to release and monitor Screech Owls in Central Park. We did our own research into owl habitats and presented our study to the Central Park Board of Directors. It was my first experience conducting and presenting real research. It was scary but it did not deter me, and I decided I wanted to pursue a biochemistry degree in college. In college, it wasn't my professors who inspired me, but it was the other students who were learning science alongside with me, including my amazing friends Patricia Kelly and Yusha Hu. However, I ended up taking an education course and fell in love. So, I switched to a biology and education. As I trudged forward in my life’s journey, I have been lucky to work with and learn from so many amazing and hardworking women in the scientific and educational field.