BRIDGES: From Pre-Med to Plants
How the HudsonAlpha BRIDGES Fellowship program helped undergraduates discover new passions and shape careers
By: Emily Adelman
HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology launched the Boosting Retention, Interest, and Diversity through Guided Experiences in STEM program (BRIDGES) last year. The initiative offers a transformative laboratory experience for recent college graduates impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Through this program, three undergraduates from Alabama A&M University found their paths unexpectedly diverging into plant science. Through BRIDGES, Joshua Stanley, Elijah Nix, and Jer’Michael Nix discovered a new passion and invaluable lab experience that would shape their future careers.
The Path to Plants
The BRIDGES program is supported by the National Science Foundation. It offers a year-long, full-time paid fellowship to recent graduates of minority-serving institutions who missed out on hands-on lab experience because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The fellowship immerses participants in a HudsonAlpha research lab, where they acquire essential laboratory and critical thinking skills, along with professional development opportunities designed to equip fellows for post-graduate success.
Plant science was not on the list of career options for Joshua, Elijah and Jer’Michael. In fact, the long-time friends (and brothers in the case of Elijah and Jer’Michael) were all planning on medical careers before the pandemic hit. Joshua was on track to become a physical therapist before a chance class changed his thinking. “My view shifted during my sophomore year in college during COVID. I wasn’t interested in what I was learning until I took botany. I really enjoyed the botany class, and I already knew I liked genetics,” Joshua said. “I learned about HudsonAlpha’s programs and immediately wanted to apply so I could experience plant science firsthand.”
It was a similar sentiment for Jer’Michael. “I was studying for the MCAT and while doing so, realized pre-med was not something I was interested in anymore.” Jer’Michael credits his family for inspiring him to go into plant science. “I realized my grandparents liked to grow their own fruits and vegetables. I wanted to go and try it out, and that is when I got really interested in studying and understanding plants.”
Meaningful career development opportunities
Lab experience was a missing piece in Josh’s, Elijah’s, and Jer’Michael’s undergraduate path. During the pandemic, most learning shifted online, robbing students of valuable hands-on learning experiences, especially in the latter years of college. One of the goals of the BRIDGES program is for fellows to gain valuable experience working in a research lab and contributing to scientific endeavors and opportunities. “My expectations for the BRIDGES program were high because I was trying to get more lab experience to build on my skills,” Jer’Michael said. “I learned how to extract DNA, create library preps, normalize samples, and take care of plants in the greenhouse while I was at HudsonAlpha,” Elijah mentioned.
Each fellow learned new skills under the direction of a mentor in their assigned lab, but thanks to HudsonAlpha’s collaborative spirit, mentorship bleeds beyond the laboratory walls. “I get help from everyone, which has made my time here extremely valuable,” Elijah said. “I have basically the entire lab mentor me, which is really great.” Elijah worked in the Clevenger Lab at HudsonAlpha, learning and working with peanut plants. He spent time in the lab and the greenhouse and got invaluable bioinformatics experience working with Khufu, a genotyping platform designed by Drs. Josh Clevenger and Walid Korani. “I learned entirely new skills on the plant side, which was really helpful,” Elijah mentioned. “At school, I would read papers about things scientists would do, but I never actually did them until I came to HudsonAlpha.”
Joshua and Jer’Michael both worked on different projects in the Swaminathan Lab at HudsonAlpha. “Going from the pre-med side to plant science, I basically had to learn a different set of skills, like micropipetting and tissue culture. It took me a while to understand and grasp that concept,” Jer’Michael said. “I also jumped into a lot more of the bioinformatics side and was able to break things down in a digestible way so I wouldn’t be too overloaded with information, and it’s worked well so far.”
While Joshua had some lab experience at HudsonAlpha, through the Alabama Office of Minority Affairs Co-op program, the long term immersive experience that BRIDGES provided, was a game changer, as he learned how to do DNA extractions, RNA extractions, cloning, and plant phenotype analysis. “BRIDGES was a lot of jumping into something new and learning along the way,” he said.
BRIDGES was a lot of jumping into something new and learning along the way.
Professional development opportunities offered through BRIDGES helped bridge the gap between undergraduate studies and professional work or graduate programs. “One of the things that stood out to me the most during BRIDGES was getting the chance to go to different conferences and actually talking to these professionals in person,” Elijah said. Due to the pandemic, the majority of conversations between undergraduates and their peers were online. HudsonAlpha afforded BRIDGES fellows the opportunity to go to different research conferences to present their work and speak with other students in the agricultural science field. “One of the most recent conferences that Jer’Michael and I went to was in St. Louis, where we had the chance to meet students from across the nation and other countries, which was really nice,” Elijah said. “I actually got the chance to connect with them and get their contact information.”
What’s next?
As Joshua, Jer’Michael and Elijah navigated the BRIDGES program, they gained invaluable experience in laboratory skills, research and professional development. Throughout the program, they faced a common challenge: determining their next steps. HudsonAlpha played a crucial role in guiding them through that process.
The Institute’s support helped these fellows decide to pursue their master’s degrees. Joshua and Jer’Michael, with help from their mentor Dr. Swaminathan, will work and pursue their graduate degrees through Alabama A&M’s Department of Plant and Soil Sciences. “We will both be conducting research at HudsonAlpha & AAMU and going to school,” Joshua noted, emphasizing the diverse opportunities in science, agriculture and research available to them.
Elijah also decided on a master’s degree, securing the Alabama Space Grant Consortium fellowship for hairy root transformation research on peanuts. His work will focus on metabolic pathways and aflatoxin resistance, with part of his fellowship spent at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Elijah credited his lab experience at HudsonAlpha for preparing him for this opportunity.
Looking ahead, Joshua plans to become a plant breeder or greenhouse manager, though he remains open to various opportunities in industry and academia. Elijah is considering academia or entering the workforce after his master’s degree. He credits his time at HudsonAlpha for guiding him in the right direction. Jer’Michael, leaning towards a career in academia and research, aims to specialize in bioinformatics and plant biotechnology. He said the connections he made at HudsonAlpha helped influence his career decision. “The most rewarding part of this (BRIDGES) was the connections I built with everyone in the lab. I’ve seen the things people are doing in the lab and wanted to try it. I was learning through the connections I made in the lab, and if there is something I cannot do, I can ask someone, and if they are not able to do it themselves, they are able to find someone and point me in the right direction.”
HudsonAlpha leads the way when it comes to shaping the future of STEM and fostering diverse talent and BRIDGES provides students with valuable experience in science and biotechnology. “The most valuable thing I gained from the BRIDGES program was the connections I made as well as being physically in a lab. I was able to be in an environment to watch what was going on and learn more about what career paths are available to me,” Elijah said. “If I hadn’t done this, I would probably still be at home studying for the MCAT because I didn’t know this type of research was available and was a field that I could go into.”
“The most valuable thing I gained from the BRIDGES program was the connections I made as well as being physically in a lab. I was able to be in an environment to watch what was going on and learn more about what career paths are available to me.”
-Elijah Nix
Boosting Retention, Interest, and Diversity through Guided Experiences in STEM (BRIDGES) is supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number 2225832.
