Adrian Woods

High School Apprentice, Plant Disease Team

“It's really unique to study Plantago. When I came here I thought, ‘Oh, we are just looking at a weed.’ Now that I’m studying and doing my own project on it, I am reminded how this plant is still part of our environment and how we are affecting them.”

Adrian is interested in human health and the medical field. On Team Plant Disease, Adrian gets a plant-focused perspective of disease and a summer experience exploring STEM opportunities.

“I eventually want to work in the medical field, so learning about diseases through plants and how they can be affected by human-led urbanization is really interesting. Because I come from a family of mostly medical workers, science has always been ingrained in me. But my interest in math and engineering came on this year when I took calculus. Everyone was doubting me and it really hurt my self-esteem. They tried to tell me that I wouldn’t do well in the class. But that just pushed me to do better and I ended up receiving a whole math department award and doing extremely well in that class. That sparked my interest in math and I proved to myself that I am at least decent at it. I thought, maybe I should integrate this into my future career.”

Adrian is a motivated student and is using TERA as a means of learning useful skills to apply to their future.

“The skills I've acquired throughout my years as a SIFTer and now as a TERA definitely could be integrated into any field that I choose. Teamwork, problem solving, leadership, research, presentations. Being exposed to experiences this early on can really help with future fields that I decide to explore. Showing that I am able to commit to things for a long period of time will also help me. Plant disease can be tied to biomedical science with diseases, human health, and human interactions.”