At Washington State University, where I learned genetic engineering, my labmates had a saying: "If you want to know WHY you should do the next step, ask Erik; if you just want to hear the next step, ask someone else." I love seeing the change in someone's eyes from simply knowing facts to understanding them. After my Master's in Genetics at Washington State, I worked in crop breeding at the University of Idaho and mosquito-borne virus research at Colorado State University's BioSafety...
At Washington State University, where I learned genetic engineering, my labmates had a saying: "If you want to know WHY you should do the next step, ask Erik; if you just want to hear the next step, ask someone else." I love seeing the change in someone's eyes from simply knowing facts to understanding them. After my Master's in Genetics at Washington State, I worked in crop breeding at the University of Idaho and mosquito-borne virus research at Colorado State University's BioSafety Level 3 facility, seeing many graduate students come to deeper understanding of what we did and why. I began teaching at AIMS Community College and Front Range Community College, teaching undergraduate Biology and Microbiology, delighting in seeing my students go from apathetic towards the class to being stunned and delighted by the mysteries of science. During that time I had the opportunity to substitute teach at Colorado Early Colleges High School, which encourages students to have an Associate's degree by graduation; I was so delighted by my experience there that I stayed for three years, while concurrently teaching on the Front Range Community College campus.
I specialize in the Biological Sciences; however, no one can do well in Biology and avoid Mathematics, Chemistry, Statistics, and even Physics. I have never regretted minoring in Mathematics and Chemistry at New Mexico State University, or all of the graduate level Biochemistry courses I took at Washington State University. And so I often find myself tutoring in Mathematics, Chemistry, and Statistics even when the emphasis is "only" Biology.
