“My dream has been to work at the CDC as an epidemiologist since around my sophomore year of high school – and I was recently hired to work with the CDC’s Healthy Brain Initiative part-time. Even though I always envisioned myself working at the CDC, I never expected I would be able to accomplish it so early on. I honestly didn’t even think that I would be accepted to Emory, but I’m super excited to have accomplished both of those things.

The most exciting part of Emory so far has been the wide variety of classes. My current favorite class is toxicology, even though it’s super difficult. I’m working hard to study and understand more about how toxicants affect the human body.

Once I start at the CDC (after the security clearance process), my typical day will probably include assisting with the website and literature reviews. I think the classes and my internship at WOU definitely helped me gain some relevant experience – especially with the literature reviews.

I think my experience with academic writing was a major reason I got the job with the CDC. It helped that one of the lit reviews that I had conducted was about Alzheimer’s Disease.

My main piece of advice to other students is to get out there and take risks, I was honestly terrified to move to the other side of the country away from most of my family. I’ve only been in Atlanta for about 3 months but I’m very glad that I took the risk for my future career.

Also, don’t be afraid to reach out to your professors to get help with anything. Dr. Vala-Haynes was personally a huge help throughout the whole process of my application to Emory and I’m very appreciative of her support!”