Johns Hopkins University has had a lot of firsts… It was the first research university established in the US… It snapped the first picture of Earth from outer space… And it established the first academy of music. But this year, it was home to my second summer research experience, thanks to the Johns Hopkins Institute of NanoBiotechnology.

The first week of November 2017 was a special week in Phoenix, Arizona. The capital city of The Grand Canyon State was host to the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS for short), a four-day event where minority students can present their research, share experiences, and network with scientists. Thousands of undergraduates, post-baccalaureates, and graduate students attended this year and were able to present their work either as a poster or oral presentation. I was fortunate enough to have been able to attend and present the research I had done over the summer.