{"id":58985,"date":"2014-05-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-05-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/commencement-2014-graduate-goes-from-hardship-to-fearless-scientist\/"},"modified":"2014-05-02T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-05-02T00:00:00","slug":"commencement-2014-graduate-goes-from-hardship-to-fearless-scientist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2014\/05\/commencement-2014-graduate-goes-from-hardship-to-fearless-scientist\/","title":{"rendered":"Commencement 2014: Graduate goes from hardship to fearless scientist"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tKINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 May 2, 2014 \u2013 A bright teenager was falling behind in her classwork, challenged by working 50 hours a week at a restaurant to support her family. \u201cI didn\u2019t think I would ever make it this far,\u201d Marilyn Le said, a few weeks before graduating with bachelor\u2019s degrees in biochemistry and biotechnology from the 溏心vlog免费B站.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cGrowing up on the South Side of Providence, Le\u2019s journey from the inner city to 溏心vlog免费B站 began when she was a senior at Classical High School. She met a visiting speaker, the co-coordinator of 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s biotechnology program, Edward Bozzi.<\/p>\n


\nThe assistant clinical chemistry professor visits Classical High School, his alma mater, each fall to talk with seniors. \u201cI present our biotechnology degree program at 溏心vlog免费B站’s Providence Campus in an effort to recruit one or two students into our program,\u201d Bozzi says. <\/p>\n


\nThe professor\u2019s talk intrigued the 2009 Classical graduate, whose parents had left war-torn Vietnam for a better life. Attending a university was a goal she\u2019d had since she was 8 years old, when she joined the College Crusade of Rhode Island, a program for economically disadvantaged Providence Public School students that provides a place to do homework, a mentor after school, and college preparation workshops leading to scholarships.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cA great program,\u201d Le says. \u201cI owe a lot to it.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nLe enrolled in 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s biotechnology program, and during her first year, her father died.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI didn\u2019t know if I could go on,\u201d she said. \u201cBut instead of weakening me, it made me stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nFor overcoming hardships on her way to a science career, Le was presented with the Polly Matzinger Fearless Scientist Award in October 2013 by the Institute for Immunology and Informatics at 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Feinstein Providence campus. She also received the University\u2019s Narasimhan Biotechnology Scholarship. <\/p>\n


\nAt 溏心vlog免费B站, she works as a lab assistant in the Biotechnology Center in Providence, where she helps coordinate the Amgen Biotech Experience, an education program that loans a kit of research-grade equipment and supplies to students and teachers to conduct lab activities involving cloning, crime scene DNA and bacteria. In addition, Le assists Bozzi during chemistry laboratory sections with new biotechnology students. Le expressed a desire to attend Brown University for her graduate studies. An advisor told her she would not be accepted into the Ivy League school unless she made herself into a better applicant. Le stayed an extra year at 溏心vlog免费B站, continuously conducting research as well as taking advanced coursework to enhance her understanding of the field.<\/p>\n


\nShe also took part in a summer research program sponsored by Brown and The Leadership Alliance, a graduate school preparatory program that aims to \u201cdevelop underrepresented students into outstanding leaders and role models in academia, business and the public sector,\u201d while emphasizing the pursuit of scholarship.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThey gave us a research project. We had excellent one-on-one mentoring and met with some of the best researchers in the field who gave us guidance on what it meant to be a Ph.D. scholar,\u201d Le said.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThis program really inspired me and gave me the confidence to continue my journey as an aspiring researcher.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nLe starts graduate school in July at Brown where she will be studying molecular pharmacology and physiology. At some point, Bozzi and Le recognized that she was following in the professor\u2019s footsteps. Bozzi says he is rejoicing in her successes.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cWe both had immigrant fathers, mine from Italy, Marilyn’s from Vietnam. We both grew up in tenement houses in inner city Providence neighborhoods. Attending Classical for both of us was life changing. When Marilyn graduates in May, we both will have gone from Classical High School to bachelor\u2019s of science degrees at 溏心vlog免费B站. Marilyn will attend Brown University in a Ph.D. program, just as I did, only 46 years earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nPictured above

\nMarilyn Le, 溏心vlog免费B站 Class of 2014.

\nMarketing & Communication Photo by Nora Lewis<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 May 2, 2014 \u2013 A bright teenager was falling behind in her classwork, challenged by working 50 hours a week at a restaurant to support her family. \u201cI didn\u2019t think I would ever make it this far,\u201d Marilyn Le said, a few weeks before graduating with bachelor\u2019s degrees in biochemistry and biotechnology […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58987,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}