Blog Challenge #2 - Jordan Pestok

Questions

Where did you go to high school?

What classes did you like the most?

Where did you go to college?

Why?

What was you major and why?

Why did you choose to work in Dr. Van Stipdonk’s lab?

What are you researching?

What do you want to do when you are done with graduate school?

What would be your major if it was not science related?

What advice would you give people who plan on taking chemistry as their
major?
 
Biography

Khiry Patterson went to college at Duquesne University and stayed there for graduate school. He chose Duquesne University because of its location. It was in a big city but did not feel like it on the campus. It also allowed him to be close to home when he was studying. Khiry graduated from Norwin Area High School. Creative writing was his favorite class but he always liked biology as well. Khiry choose biology as his major when he first entered college but soon changed to chemistry. He thought he would be doing more dissecting in biology. When he found out he was wrong and discovered how small everything really was in biology, he turned his attention to chemistry and switched his major. Khiry said that if he had to choose another major that was not science related he would choose music.

Khiry is currently studying in Dr. Van Stipdonk’s lab. Khiry choose to work with Dr. Van Stipdonk because he seemed to have to most interesting lab. He is researching the fragmentation of peptides. He modifies peptides on the N terminus of peptides and compares the CID spectrum of the modified peptides to the native unmodified peptide. After Khiry is finished with graduate school he is not positive what he wants to do, but medical school is a very real possibility.  The advice he would give to students who want to take chemistry as their major is to be good at math. A lot of chemistry is math so you had better be good at math. He also says to ask for help in the beginning and not to wait until you are too lost to catch up. It is always good to make relationships with your professor. Finally, Khiry says do not stress out in chemistry.