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INSTRUCTOR: All right, Paula, here's the crazy butterfly puzzle.
Let's see what you can do.
PAULA: OK.
PAULA: Nanotechnology is what it sounds like.
It's basically technology on the nanoscale.
I'm obsessed with butterflies. [CHUCKLES]
Nanotechnology is creating really, really tiny materials,
or devices, or structures to produce technology.
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I feel like nanotech is very elegant.
INSTRUCTOR: Is your butterfly in there?
PAULA: My name is Paula Kirya.
I go to school at Pasadena City College
and it's my third year here.
I have another name, Nansamba.
That's Ugandan.
My parents are from Uganda.
I was born in Toronto, Canada.
My whole life was spent in Canada and the United States.
In high school I showed up to class.
I was going through the motions, but I couldn't find something
to be interested in.
So when it came to applications, I applied to all these schools
with different majors, but I was like I don't want to do this.
Am I really going to go into debt for something
I don't even know I want to do?
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In community college the goal is to learn, grow,
and to just become better.
My first year here at PCC I wanted
to dip my foot into everything.
JARED: To get students more interested in science,
we introduce research within our classes.
VERONICA: Our focus is how we can incorporate science
into the early experience of students,
hopefully inspiring them to want to do research.
JARED: This is where we came up with what
we called the Early Career Undergraduate Research
Experience.
PAULA: Dr. Ashcroft-- I was taking his Chemistry 1A course
and he invited me to participate in this research project
about morpho butterfly wings.
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JARED: The project that we've been working on
with butterfly wings is why do the blue morpho butterfly wings
have that cool, iridescent blue color.
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PAULA: We're imaging these butterfly wings.
You're seeing these nanostructures
and it's basically telling us the colors you see--
they don't come from pigment like the melanin in your skin.
They come from these nanostructures
interacting with light to produce
colors of certain wavelengths.
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I've never heard of anything like this before.
I was like this is some voodoo, like this is something
I would like to research.
JARED: Once you can get that passion and that love
of science, I think that what you
see as students start actually performing well in class.
VERONICA: The National Science Foundation distributes grants
to advanced technical education and one of the grants
came to Pasadena City College for the Early Career
Undergraduate Research Experience,
so the ECURE program.
JARED: The ATE program really promoted undergraduate research
and using the undergraduate research is ideal.
VERONICA: Our undergraduate research experience
builds a pipeline from course to internships
at our partner institutions.
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PAULA: I was able to participate in the undergraduate research
internship with Dr. Radwan Siddique.
RADWAN: Just making the size of any material
in the order of nanometers, you can change the properties.
The visible light will start interacting.
JEFF: When you're moving on as a researcher,
you have to cultivate your sense of wonder
and take it into a creative realm.
That's the only way to do things no one's done before.
RADWAN: Passion and motivation, this
is the driving force for science.
You will end up with something like this.
Can you can see the color change?
PAULA: Attending Pasadena City College, this
is the best decision I've ever made.
Absolutely 100%.
The opportunities I was able to get--
I didn't even think that was possible for me
to participate in research as an undergrad.
If I went to a big institution, I
wouldn't have had professors or mentors as engaged and involved
in me.
I really look up to my community college professors
who helped me so much.
And it would mean a lot to me if I
could do that for someone else, help them
the way I've been helped.
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I want to continue my education and get
a PhD in bioengineering.
I've been thinking about a career as professor
and pursue research as well.
Took a while, but now I finally have
a sense of what I want to do.
VERONICA: So you have to come back and tell us
all the great things you do in the future.
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