Alexis at work in the laboratory.

Nov. 7, 2006
I took a 3 hour nap in place of actual sleep tonight. This is neither the first nor the last “all nighter” of the semester. Ill admit some responsibility, but I did run a debate tournament from 7:30 am to 9:30 pm all weekend which left me little time to study for this exam. Sure I could have started last week, but last week had its own set of problems that pushed this task to the side. I had a presentation in microbial ecology on the flora of the gut tube. I also was in a public debate on Thursday on school desegregation. So far 2 people from the audience have stopped me on campus to tell me how much they enjoyed it and how good I was. It’s nice to know people were impressed enough to say something. One girl even told me I had a “gift” and asked if I was planning on debating for a career. I said I may go to law school which is a lie, but it’s easier than explaining why a public debater wants to be a molecular microbiologist. Oh and I’m days late on turning in a CV to Dr. Temple for my “JMU women of distinction application” goodness, getting recognition takes work.

The following quote is an excerpt from a debate where I advocated feminist jurisprudence, or feminism in the creation and enforcement of the law. This was presented at the University of Kentucky debate tournament October 8, 2006.

“Nice try, But your complete ignorance of women’s lives and realities in the rhetorical construction of the case is another link to the criticism. It is symptomatic of how law acts to silence and sterilize women’s concerns in the public sphere choosing instead to gloss over substantive issues of women’s lives and realities. These are all implicated in the Peterson evidence which whether you like it or not is damn good talking about why all of the impacts to the aff are inevitable if we do not first interrogate why our society is continually on the brink of economic and nuclear war. The answer? hierarchies and masculine notions of power and privilege. We have to direct our questions in an effective direction by talking about the unequal distribution of resources, and other disparities that lead to the impacts of the affirmative.”

Dec. 1, 2006
[from an emailed note]
I am hosting a high school debate tournament at JMU this weekend to try and recruit high schoolers from around the region to come to JMU and apply for Debate Scholarships like the one I am on. Should be fun. On Sat I am going to DC to meet with the Cannon Life Sciences people which is a research facility in Rockport ,MD. An old friend from Dr. Temple's lab works there and invited me to the Christmas party, should be a good opportunity to meet people with careers similar to the one I plan on having. Having fun and networking at the same time, multitasking should be my middle name!!:-)

Jan. 12, 2007
[response to emailed questions]
(1) My favorite thing at JMU:
My favorite thing about JMU is the people, faculty and students alike. Being from a military family I'm used to leaving a place after 3 or 4 years and I can honestly say no amount of moving has prepared me for leaving this place. I feel like this is my extended family. People look out for me and I have experienced an unprecedented amount of support to peruse whatever it is that I am interested in. At JMU it is really true that if you seek you will find. Weather it be a mentor, a project leader, an internship, a club or activity and if on the slight chance you cant find it, there are people here that will support you in making your goals a reality.

(2) My dream come true:
My dream come true will be when I get to be on the other side of the equation. To be a mentor to people encouraging them to pursue their goals. I want to be a living example that you can have everything you want, that you can be a scientist an advocate for social change, a mother and have a successful and fulfilling career. The only limits that exist are the ones you put on yourself.

Projects are progressing quickly at this point. We have come up with new protocols to manage previous problems that my research was running into. We are testing new methods of phage extraction for the imaging, and I will be heading back up to UVA soon to get a (hopefully) better picture of my phage. I am utilizing another detection technique (x-ray film) to visualize my results for the phage ends and integration project and I have just completed the rna extraction for the repressor protein project. I have also taken on an independent study to research the rhetoric of women in science.

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