R25T Cancer Prevention and Control Postdoctoral Fellow, The University of Arizona Cancer Center

I was born and raised in Harbor Springs, Michigan, and spent summers in the neighboring town of Wequetonsing with my sister and five cousins. I played tennis, volleyball, and softball and was the first person in my high school to earn 12 varsity letters. At Hillsdale, I majored in biology and minored in chemistry and math. I played tennis all four years at Hillsdale, and my senior year I also threw javelin. My senior year was marked by tragedy with my cousin John passing away after an 18-month battle with leukemia and my uncle John passing away days before graduation. I began my graduate work at the University of Arizona in the Department of Nutritional Sciences. In my first year there, my cousin Mitchell was diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma. Through tears and negotiation, I was able to take the summer off and return to Harbor Springs. In spite of that, I remained on track and completed my M.S. in 2007 and my Ph.D. in 2010. My research focused on the assessment of the disposition of the bioactive food component limonene, a potential breast cancer chemopreventive agent found in citrus peel oil.
I had built a life in Tucson; therefore I was grateful when I earned an R25 Postdoc position—one of five in the country—at The University of Arizona Cancer Center (UACC) in Cancer Prevention and Control in 2011. This training combines my knowledge in nutrition with my personal commitment to preventing a disease that had become too close. I also continued my limonene work that had started six years earlier at Hillsdale, under Dr. Frank Steiner, while branching into a new area called metabolomics. There was no training at UACC in metabolomics, but the R25 funded eight weeks of metabolomics training at Imperial College, London, with experts in the field.
I'll soon begin a Research Assistant Professor position in the Department of Nutritional Sciences here at Arizona. Throughout challenges and tragedy, the Lord has covered my life and career with grace, and I'm blessed to have continuity and work in a place I can call home.

I think the most important thing I learned at Hillsdale was time management and work-life balance. My graduate classmates came and went – even after 5-7 years of graduate school they didn’t form relationships with people that were strong enough to remain in contact. Hillsdale fosters an environment that balances a tough schedule with making personal relationships a priority. As an athlete (like many other Hillsdale students), both time and sleep are even more precious commodities. Sleep is really, really important. Sometimes practice and studying with friends had to count as quality time, but these activities foster relationships, and I maintain many of these friendships today. As a graduate student, I followed the same pattern, let myself take real, actual days off, and have made some amazing friends along the way.

I think it is important to recognize early on that studying efficiently is not the same as studying hard. When you learn to study efficiently, you can do really well without classes consuming you.

I chose Hillsdale because when I first stepped onto the campus, it felt like I was supposed to go there. I was also fortunate enough to receive both tennis and academic scholarships.

Since graduating from Hillsdale, my life has been graduate school and a post-doc, so my time management skills have been essential. Many academics get consumed by their work because they feel like they have too much to do to take time for themselves to spend with friends and family. I learned to be a person first and an academic second, and I’ve done just as well as my peers.

While it’s random, I honestly think the highlight of my Hillsdale experience was getting 5th in the conference meet in javelin because it was so unexpected. It was also a small glimmer of light during a really dark time, when John was sick. Coach Forino had asked me to join track my senior year after tennis ended since it was the only spring semester of my college career that I wasn’t training for tennis in the fall. Also, tennis was temporarily disbanded after my senior season, and so there was no need to help the younger girls train. I did moderately well throughout the season considering I had never thrown a javelin before, and it was nice because there weren’t high expectations of me like in tennis. I got a personal record at conference and came in 5th, placing ahead of girls that had thrown throughout college. It was great!

jam1@email.arizona.edu