As a young child, I resided in a ranch surrounded by many natural features and animals. As I grew older, I developed and appreciation for science and the environment. My interest for Biology, however, developed my freshman year in high school as a member of the South Texas Engineering Math and Science program (STEMS). The mission for the STEMS program is to provide outdoor educational opportunities which are not readily available to students in the Lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas. STMES promotes higher education by coordinating college projects and summer enrichment programs. Other components of STEMS will include college mentors, professional role models, leadership activities, career awareness and science competitions. I was exposed to great opportunities and experience through out my membership and was motivated to continue my education at the University of Texas at Brownsville where my membership would continue. I have been a part of STEMS for over six years and it is an honor to be a part of a prestigious program that can successfully assist you in overcoming academic obstacles and following the dreams that seen to be too far to reach.
     The STEMS program has enabled me to become involved with national organizations that focused on biology and general sciences such as Texas Parks and Wildlife and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In the spring of 2004, 2005, and 2006 I was invited to attend education workshops at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX to become an ambassador for South Texas. As an ambassador I became familiar with the scientific aspects of past and future NASA missions such as MER (Martian Extraterrestrial Rover) to Mars, Stardust and Deep Impact, and Returning to the Moon in 2020. With this knowledge and training I was able to educate more than 500 young children about NASA’s mission and also helped the students develop a strong interest in science, technology, mathematics, and engineering. During my experience as a South Texas ambassador I discovered that scientists are still in the process of finding life on Mars and trying to use the Moon as a launching site for easier access to the red planet. I hope to one day contribute to that endeavor. In February 2006 I was accepted into the Texas Aerospace Scholars program where I as a Project Engineer, or designated leader of our team. I had the opportunity of experiencing a real-life working environment at NASA Johnson Space Center where we competed in assembling an extraterrestrial rover model. Through these educational occurrences I have gained interest in working with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Every summer, since 2001, I participated in an educational trip to Rancho del Cielo Biosphere in Tamaulipas, Mexico and during these trips I have conducted different experiments such as water quality of rivers, soil acidity, and the identification of insects, snakes, butterflies, birds, trees and geological features. I also had the opportunity to travel to Colorado where we studied geological formations such as canyons, volcanic dikes, types of sedimentary rocks and the process of subduction. In the summer of 2004 and 2006 I was an instructor for a butterfly class where my students learned how to collect, pin, and identify butterflies of the Rio Grande Valley and Mexico. The University of Texas at Brownsville has a research laboratory located on South Padre Island, Texas and I volunteered in assisting a graduate student in collecting data for her research project on the Asian Green Mussel (Perna verdis). I also volunteered in assisting the Texas Coastal Ecology classes collect invertebrates for the identification of marine species located on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico on the beach of South Padre Island. Many of my skills and experience have been gained through volunteer work.
     My academic plans are to graduate from the University of Texas at Brownsville with a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and minor in Environmental Science. I then plan to continue my education and receive a Master’s degree in a specified field of Biology. My career goals are to gain valuable real-world experience as an undergraduate to become a Co-op at Johnson Space Center in order to fulfill my aspiration of working at NASA as a planetary scientist with emphasis in aerospace biology. My greatest desire is to become a secondary teacher because I believe that I will have the potential, skills, and educational background to be a positive influence to the next generation of scientists. With effort and diligent work comes wonderful, once in a lifetime experiences that I hope to share and give back to my community.
     I was accepted into the URE OMS program this summer and it is my first internship that I have attended. I have been trained to better enhance my skills as a professional research student. As an undergraduate participant, I was a member of the Remote Sensing team where research was conducted to create an accurate campus map of forest types that will allow climate modelers and researchers to more accurately predict the carbon sequestration capacity of forested landscapes. Our team mapped the ECSU campus using both Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) data (acquired 6/12/99) and aerial photographic data (acquired from ncOneMap). Field verification (ground truth) measurements were acquired and calibrated both remote sensing data sets. The final product, a land cover map of the campus, was produced using unsupervised classification methods provided by MultiSpec data analysis and image processing software to evaluate the ETM+ data. The ETM+ data provided multispectral data at 30m spatial resolution, while the aerial photography provided hyperspatial data. I plan to apply and be involved with other internship opportunities in the future and through these internships I intend to serve as a role model and mentor for minorities who dream big.