by Amy Yarygina ‘25

In high school, I was never able to experience working in a laboratory at a college level because my AP Chemistry class was online during the pandemic. Instead, I had to create a project of laboratory protocols and memorize them two weeks before my AP exam. Therefore, I was looking forward to immersing myself in a learning experience like this upon my arrival at Pace. 

I was placed into the Honors Lab section on Mondays with Marcy Kelly. We weren’t dissecting an animal or looking at plant cells through a microscope; we were on the search for antibiotics in the program Small World Initiative. For our second class, we brought soil samples and were told to “go for it.” It might seem odd to be given no instructions, but having the experience to think methodically and reach our objective on our own was an exciting first step in the long journey of being able to isolate soil bacteria and identify the organism we found. In each lab, our instructor would describe the protocol and give us the freedom to complete the necessary steps. Our lab specifically focused on microbiology and we worked with safe ESKAPE pathogens throughout the semester.

At the end of the semester, we worked on writing our 15–20 page lab report on the antibiotic producer we found. It seemed stressful at first, but Marcy Kelly was dedicated and gave specific feedback to all our lab reports. 

I enjoyed working in the BIO 101 lab and felt that I was actively participating in a well-known program aimed at combating the antibiotic resistance crisis. Pace Honors gave me the opportunity to work in a productive and purposeful lab. I attended a science career fair hosted at Pace and a recruiter at Brookhaven National Laboratory was impressed with a college freshman having a completed report associated with a well-known program like Small World Initiative. I was not only able to gain an incredible experience from Marcy Kelly’s BIO 101 lab but also be a step ahead in my college path.