Drive to Find Cancer Cure Draws Student Back to CU for Second Degree
When Adelita Mendoza graduates on Friday from the University of Colorado at Boulder, she will be tossing her cap for the second time.
(Media-Newswire.com) - When Adelita Mendoza graduates on Friday from the University of Colorado at Boulder, she will be tossing her cap for the second time.
Mendoza, 28, of Thornton, already earned a bachelor's degree in environmental, population and organismic biology from CU-Boulder in 2004. This time she is earning a bachelor's degree in molecular, cellular and developmental biology, and her main interest is studying cancer biology.
The first person in her family to graduate from college, Mendoza decided to make a change and return to school after she landed a job with the University of Colorado School of Medicine in 2004. Her job was processing blood and urine samples that would be used in AIDS clinical trials.
"Being around all of those doctors and pharmacists really piqued my interest in biomedical research," Mendoza said. "It was a tough decision to start over, but now I know I made the right one."
She currently works as a professional research assistant in the Cytogenetics Core at the University of Colorado Cancer Center on the Anschutz Medical Campus. She is studying the gene IGF1R, which has been known to play a role in cancer development.
"I chose to study cancer because it is a disease that affects everyone, nobody is immune," Mendoza said. "Understanding it and helping find ways to treat it would make a high impact on the world, and that's what I want to do."
This spring she also co-founded a CU-Boulder student chapter of a national group called the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science. The organization is dedicated to fostering the success of underrepresented minorities in the areas of science and engineering, a topic that is important to Mendoza.
"The backbone of the organization is mentorships, so creating a support group for these students while they are in school and continuing all the way into graduate school or the working world is extremely important," said Mendoza, who is acting president of the organization.
Mendoza credits her parents for sparking her interest in science as a child. "I'm not done yet, I plan to go to graduate school to earn a Ph.D.," she said.
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