“I love biology. Life, in general, sparks an interest in me. It’s a beautiful thing. I’ve been doing research at Jackson State since middle school through the Interdisciplinary Center for Nanotoxicity (ICN).

I really want to be a plastic surgeon. I used to watch the show, ‘Botched.’ On that show, two plastic surgeons would fix what unqualified surgeons messed up. The patients may have necrosis or other medical conditions, and the surgeons would try to help the patients feel better about themselves through plastic surgery. I started doing more research on plastic surgeons, and I saw myself in that position. Then I started shadowing a surgeon. Being able to interact with patients and actually change their lives definitely piqued my interest.

Some people only think of plastic surgery as liposuction or a tummy tuck, but it’s more to it than that. It is not all about looking pretty. Sometimes, people have real-life events and you can boost that person’s feelings about themselves. In the Jackson Medical Mall, where I shadow a surgeon, there were cancer patients who needed reconstruction on their breasts. And, I could see the progression while I was there. It changed their lives. Surgery can be a beautiful thing.”

– Lydia, graduating senior biology/pre-medicine major from Jackson, Miss.

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