My aspirations have always been pretty straightforward: to increase what I was able to understand and do by my own hand, and figure out how to use that to do the most I can for others. Given that my perspectives and thought patterns have proven so unique, I've found that the major place I want to grow these skills and do this good is in academia- first I thought engineering, and now biomedical sciences, particularly of the neurological and immunological natures.
But... I've come to recognize that research, theory and hypothetical, can only do so much to shift the tides of a changing world singlehandedly, and require support from real changes in the form of direct action, policy reform, and education and social organizing. To use smaller words, I love my neuroscience research focus for the things it teaches me to do and invent, but I also need to learn how to teach others to do and invent, in ways that really changes lives directly.
I have studied Neuroscience at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor since fall of 2022. I took a gap academic year in 2023, reoriented myself and thought about what I wanted, and set forth with an action plan: Study Neuroscience now, while also learning create and call on community forces for community wellbeing, and apply what I've learned in academia for several years in my community, before potentially returning to academia to pursue post-graduate research.
I grew up in Flushing, Michigan, about fifteen minutes out from Flint. I never much liked my hometown, as it never felt like it liked me, and ended up attending highschool at Genesee Early College in Flint.