June 8: Nearly packed!

I'll be boarding a plane within the next nine hours to fly to JFK and then Johannesburg, South Africa to spend nearly two months in Limpopo as an independent scholar with The University of Virginia. My excitement level is quite manageable for now, but I expect I'll be dancing with anticipation once I can get past the overwhelming choice of which books to pack.

UVa has a collaboration with the University of Venda in South Africa called Water and Health in Limpopo, where scientists and engineers from both schools work together on a number of public health projects and research subjects. I was fortunate enough to be chosen as the one participant from UVa-Wise (a small school in Southwestern VA) to join the program and have been partially funded by Healthy Appalachia to travel with UVa students to take part in the research.

In Wise, I am a senior chemistry major with minors in biology and English, headed toward medical school (MD/PhD, I hope) and eventually immunology research. Last summer I collected snapping turtles and analyzed hormones and immunological components in a pretty successful fellowship in Wise, but I see this project, where I can work in a larger lab and (hopefully!) contribute to the body of knowledge that can be used to understand and improve the lives of real human communities, as a huge step up from reptiles and closer to my ultimate career goals. Plus getting the chance to travel so far away in the name of science is awesome all on its own.

Besides some information gleaned from last year's Wise participant and my UVa liaison, I really have no idea what I'm headed into, but it promises to be an extraordinary, if not life-changing, trip. Before I've even left, I've had to overcome my debilitating fear of needles to get countless vaccines and things can only get cooler (and less painful).

I will be trying to update this blog as often as my schedule and the Internet availability will allow to share my experiences and stay somewhat connected to the U.S. while I'm gone. It might be a few days before I have the ability to write again, but by then I'll be in South Africa!