I am currently a junior at John Jay College of Criminal Justice majoring in Forensic Science with a concentration in Toxicology. Once I earn my bachelor’s degree, I want to become a drug testing or post-mortem toxicologist. Recently, however, I have been thinking of pursuing the criminalistics track that John Jay offers as well as possibly getting my master’s degree. I want to go after criminalistics because analyzing physical evidence and using those findings for criminal proceedings has always been interesting to me. I have found that the more I learn in class and the more people I talk to in the field I want to pursue, the more I have the desire to keep learning and explore other sciences & possible career paths. While I am still exploring different fields, ultimately, I would like to work in crime or government laboratories and I am also open to the idea of working in a private sector.

While pursuing my degree, I aspire to do research alongside a professor at John Jay. While researching the core science faculty I saw many of them are world renowned, have a PhD, and their resumes are pages and pages long filled with research they did in addition to all the institutions they have taught at. Although I don’t know all the science faculty personally, they really inspire me and I aspire to be like them someday.

When I transferred to John Jay in the Summer of 2022, I applied to be a part of the Program for Research Initiatives in Science & Math (PRISM) and was accepted. So far, this program has allowed me to talk to professionals and receive guidance from this. In the Spring of 2023 I hope to find a professor who will agree to work with me so I can perform my own research study.

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