Published in the San Diego Union-Tribune, March 11, 2024
by Barbara Bry
The path forward for many of us is often circuitous and rocky. For some of us, it is also very, very steep. Please meet some extraordinary mountain climbers.
Jennie Lee, 46, was raised in Whittier by her police officer father and flight attendant mom. Brett Garabedian, 36, grew up in Anaheim, with his gemologist father and his mom who worked at Disneyland. Wilfredo Gonzalez-Rivera, 26, was raised in Puerto Rico by a single mother who worked at various retail jobs to support him and his older sister.
All three are the first generation in their family to graduate from college, and now all three are pursuing doctorates in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields.
Their accomplishments have been recognized by the San Diego chapter of Achievement Rewards for College Scientists, which provides critical financial support to STEM graduate students. This national organization was started in 1958 to help develop the next generation of American STEM leadership after Americans were shocked by the Russian launch of Sputnik in 1957.
Grab your crampons.
Lee’s family raised chickens so her third-grade science project focused on chicken embryonic development. During high school, she volunteered at a senior facility and a community hospital, which led to her interest in nursing.
While she was accepted at several universities, the financial aid process was overwhelming, and so she attended a community college. She worked while earning her undergraduate degree and two master’s degrees, in nursing and in anesthesiology. Today she continues to work as a nurse anesthetist at Kaiser Permanente while studying for her doctorate in nursing at the University of San Diego and raising three children with her husband. Her research focuses on ways to reduce maternal mortality.
Lee credits her success to support from her family, but also mentoring from three exceptional women “who lighted the way” at critical junctures. Women supporting other women.
Garabedian’s early interest in science came from his gemologist father who liked to tinker with gadgets and microscopes. “I zoomed in on pond scum,” Garabedian said. Since he wasn’t a serious student in high school, he attended three different community colleges, “which allowed me to incubate.” He was blown away by an organic chemistry course, and a professor said to him. “You’re not an A student, you don’t perform well on a standardized test but you have a unique way of looking at problems that will take you far.”
Again, someone reached out to encourage.
After earning an undergraduate degree in chemical biology at UC Berkeley, he worked as a research associate in the biofuels industry where many of his colleagues were earning advanced degrees. He thought, why not me? (This is the power of seeing someone as a role model that you could look like.)
Garabedian went on to earn a master’s degree in chemistry at the University of Basel. Now, as a doctorate student at Scripps Research, his focus is on chemistry and protein engineering to empower our immune system against diseases like cancer.
Growing up in Puerto Rico, Gonzalez-Rivera accompanied his elderly grandmother and two uncles to medical appointments so he could translate for them from Spanish to English. Despite no encouragement from any teacher, he enrolled at the University of Puerto Rico, initially planning to become a doctor. “I’m probably the only member of my high school class to get a graduate degree,” he said.
He was a biotechnology major until the program director told him he wasn’t good enough. (How many times for how many people has that been said?)
Undeterred, he thought, “I was always the one in the family who fixed the phone or the microwave so I decided to major in computer science. That’s how I’ve ended up in bioinformatics (which is a combination of the two).”
Ignoring the lack of support from the professor, Gonzalez-Rivera also completed the requirements for biotechnology. It took six years to earn both degrees; his studies were derailed by Hurricane Maria and by a series of strikes that paralyzed Puerto Rico for several months.
A grand passion.
Next, while working at Eli Lilly in Puerto Rico, he remembered the scanners that his car mechanic uncles had used and thought of the idea that is the basis for his doctorate thesis — developing a human diagnosis scanner that works across multiple diseases. A professor connected him to a researcher at UC San Diego who helped him understand all the processes that would have to happen and encouraged him to come there for a doctorate.
At last a tiny lift up.
“My undergrad university was ranked 1,534 in the world, and now I’m at the No. 1 university in bioinformatics,” Gonzalez-Rivera said.
Resilience. Determination. Grit. Commitment. Qualities all exemplified by Lee, Garabedian and Gonzalez-Rivera in their quest to earn a Ph.D. and make the world a better place.
The San Diego Chapter of ARCS will honor artificial intelligence pioneer Terry Sejnowski at its annual Scientist of the Year dinner on April 27. Lee, Garabedian and Gonzalez-Rivera and the 47 other ARCS scholars will present their research at a poster session during the reception.
Rule No. 218: Grand passion and relentless pursuit will take you further than good grades.