Rimes Scholars

Students accepted into the RIMES Program are among the most competitive and promising future scientists in the nation. For program information and online application materials please visit RIMES Program Information and Applications

More information pending.

I was diagnosed, at the age of eight, with a learning disability and attention deficit disorder (ADD). This meant that I was going to have to work twice as hard to achieve my academic goals. During the course of my early education, I constantly struggled academically to keep up with my peers. Knowing that you are smart, but not understanding why you can’t learn what is being taught to you, proved to me to be the most frustrating aspect about having a learning disability. My parents finally enrolled me in a school that specialized in teaching students with language-based learning disabilities like mine. There I learned how to successfully cope with my disability and devise my own, but effective and imaginative, ways of learning. Through the RIMES Program I have been challenged personally and scientifically to further enhance these attributes. In addition, I have learned of the long many successful scientists who like me, have a learning disability. Through the RIMES Program I have also learned new ways to synthesize and utilize complex scientific information in project that contribute to the resolution of a real environmental problem. Not only have I overcome my disability but I know that the very same characteristics that have carried me this far are the same that make a good scientist (determination, perseverance and imagination). I plan to ultimately obtain a Ph.D. in Marine Biology. Through the RIMES Program I am gaining the scientific foundation and confidence to reach that goal.

I’m not what I want to be.
I’m not what I hope to be.
But by the grace of God,
I’m not what I used to be.

Have you ever thought to yourself, “If only…” or “What if…?” Well, I have. As I was growing up it was a naturally assumed that I would go to college, get married and then start a family. Well I got pregnant at seventeen, married at 21 and spent the next ten years trying to be a “good” wife, raising children, working as a bartender and wondering what happened to college. I spent a lot of years wondering “what if…”, “if only…”. I was so caught up in what might have been that I never looked at what could be.

Fear was my greatest enemy. Fear of change, of failure, of the unknown. That fear has turned into PRIDE.
From the moment I called to schedule my admissions test I have lived my life by jumping in with both feet. Some days the water’s colder then others and there have been times that the shock of it seems unbearable but the freedom from the fear is incredible.

I am presently attending FLCC where I will receive a 2 yr. degree in biotechnology before I transfer to Rochester Institute of Technology for my masters then eventually a PhD. The support I have received from professors, councilors, mentors and fellow students has been absolutely incredible. Not only have I learned the facts and figures that are necessary to graduate, I have learned to look inside myself and identify my goals, make educated decisions about the best way to achieve those goals and I have acquired the confidence needed to accomplish my goals.

More information pending.

I am a 22-year old Mexican-American, who was born and raised in Houston, TX. My goal is to attend graduate school at Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Science. I plan to obtain my doctorate in Conservation Biology and Sustainable Development, teach conduct research at a small university and dedicate my career towards balancing our natural resources with the growing needs of our society. I encourage other young Hispanic women to pursue their goals by working hard and by not always settling for second best. If you believe in yourself, others will begin to believe in you too.

Life was much harder for me than anyone would know by seeing me or meeting me. At the age of 14, my life became a battle of survival. A life threatening health problem became my major concern. Much time was missed in high school due to my illness and necessary doctor’s appointments. My schoolwork suffered tremendously and was incapable of being repaired. At that point, I saw no other choice than to drop out of high school, under the supervision of my loving and supportive parents.

When I was a little girl, my dream was to be a veterinarian. After dropping out of high school, that dream was shattered. The words are still clear in my mind, “You’ll never be able to do it.” However, “You must never lose hope.” After a slow and painful recovery I received my GED.

Still, I had some internal demons to battle. I come from a very small town, so thinking of going to college was a dramatic adjustment for me. I was never very outgoing and tended to be very shy and closed off to the rest of the world. I was constantly worried by what everyone thought and expected of me. Complete confusion had taken its toll, but now it was time to change my life. Too often I hear people say, “I hate my job” or “I don’t get paid enough.” That wasn’t going to be me. I was going to better myself through an education.

Today, my ambitions have taken me further than I ever could have imagined. I never did pursue a career in veterinary medicine, but I’ve found something that I enjoy even more, biotechnology. Attending Finger Lakes Community College has turned out to be one of the biggest and best decisions of my life. My involvement in the RIMES program, as well as various other research studies, will allow me to further my education and follow the instructive path that will deepen my knowledge in science to have enough background experience to do research for the benefit of all.

It requires strength, discipline, courage, and determination to make one’s dreams come true. It has been a great reward to receive the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship in 2003. This has revealed to me that I carry all of the essential qualities necessary to continue the long and difficult road and never stop. It is my ultimate goal to obtain my Ph.D. in biotechnology and conduct research in the field of avian population genetics. I would also hold in high regard the chance to mentor other two-year college students like myself into the sciences.

More information pending.

More information pending.

Science has always been an interest of mine, all kinds of science from insects to chemistry to the human body. However, growing up in a small town in Massachusetts, I was encouraged by faculty and family to learn secretarial and bookkeeping skills, a field most women entered. Therefore I followed my goals of being an accountant and attended local colleges and received my Bachelor Degree in Accounting. After several years in the financial world, I realized that sitting at a desk was not what I wanted. I was eager to learn something new and to apply that knowledge to do something good for others. All I was doing was making money for someone else. I needed to get up from my desk and do what I really loved, forensic science. I enrolled in a local community college to start my new career, and after only one semester, I was promoted to Laboratory Manager for the Jackson Lab at Boston University Medical School, where we do DNA testing for cold case files and human genome projects.

I was afraid of starting something new and different at my age. I was over 30 years old, single, had a mortgage and car payments. I was worried maybe it wasn’t something I really wanted, and that I would fail. But I was so unhappy in my current field that I had to do something. Fortunately, the opposite occurred. I thrived in the laboratory and in the classroom. I came to know that this was my life long dream and I was going to succeed!

I had the courage and confidence to just jump in feet first and do it and I'm so glad I did. I encourage anyone who is thinking about making a life change to go ahead and do it. If it’s really what you want, you will make it. There will be hurdles of course, but as I did, you can jump those hurdles. Science is a diverse field where there is something for everyone, and women should not keep their age, family or financial status from pursuing a long time dream.

I am currently studying at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus. For the last year I have been carrying out research at the Environmental Microbiology Laboratory. Although I am involved in more than one project, my main thrust is the use of molecular techniques to look at the diversity of microorganisms in tropical environments. The long term goal of our laboratory is to look at the ecology and evolution of environmental strains of Escherichia coli.

I want to eventually complete my doctorate in environmental microbiology and to participate in projects that will result in a better understanding of the environment. This will, in turn, result in an improved environment for our future generations. The RIMES program will play an important role in helping me achieve those goals.

Gisela Hernández

More information pending.

As a student at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, my goals are to be an independent researcher in the Ecology and Environmental Science areas as well as to be a professor on this subject. I want to teach students about the importance of protecting our environmental resources because I believe that if someone does not know about the importance of something, he or she will not be able to protect it. I believe part of my goals is a mission to protect the environment in order to prevent diseases and to protect human health. As a RIMES scholar I am able to get more knowledge in the Ecology and Environmental Sciences areas as well as to get new research experiences that will help me in my future professional life.

Sincerely,
Elia Enid Sánchez Nazario

More information pending.

*Things have gotten a little easier as they always do when you persevere. In 2001 I was awarded the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship.

Sincerely, Alberto Velez