As a young girl, I was interested in understanding how things work. I would take everything apart even when sometimes I had extra pieces when putting it back together, just to have a better idea of the mechanisms. No one in my family really understands where I got that curiosity from. When I was in middle school, my mom was diagnosed with Leukemia and she died only 6 months later. Right after, I decided to go to our neighborhood vocational high school and chose practical nursing as my vocation. While completing my patient contact hours I realized that I wanted more. I didn't want to be the nurse following recommendations from the doctors. I wanted to be the doctor. That was a tough transition, I had no college prep courses, my mom only got to be in school until 9th grade and my dad at least graduated from high school, therefore, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I only knew that I needed a college degree to go into medical school. I went to University of Puerto Rico in my hometown, Cayey. I struggled at lot my first year of college but I didn't give up. I learned about research at my college through the RISE program. A program that sent several undergraduate students to do research over the summer in the US. Although I had a very discouraging first interview, I went and signed up to do another interview for another research opportunity. In my first interview I was told my English was not good enough, my grades my freshman year were below average and that I should consider a different career. This only fueled my passion to keep trying. It was then that I interviewed with Dr. Craig Martin from University of Massachusetts. He had 2 spots for the summer program and 2 student who were perfect for the program. My academic file wasn't perfect but he went back and found funding for one extra student and gave me a chance to do research over the summer in his lab. Once I did research, my goals changes and I wanted to go into graduate school and become a scientist! I wasn't sure what discipline to pick therefore, I applied to the umbrella program in Molecular and Cellular Biology and that way I got to try a bit of everything and fell in love with biochemistry and biophysics.