My name is Esther. My ethnic background is Mexican & Nicoya. I was born in San Francisco, CA and I am the youngest of 7.
I am a first-gen college graduate having received my AS in Math & Science at City of College of San Francisco and a BS in Earth & Planetary Science from UC Santa Cruz. I am now in a dual-titled PhD program in the Geosciences Dept at Penn State University.
Since I was a kid, I was fascinated with understanding our place in the cosmos and trying to understand how everything came together to let us be here, right now. But I wasn’t your typical student—I didn’t really excel in the sciences all like that. Although I was discouraged from pursuing science multiple times, I knew it’s what I wanted.
It took me 8 years to return to college, and it took me 8 years to get that BS. In the end, I do it because it’s what I want, and I do it because I can. I love being a jack of all trades and a master of none. I can’t be just one thing, I gotta be in the know of all of it in order to connect the pieces.
En fin, I am a proud ass Latina that is involved with finding life in the universe. And if there is anything that I can share to others out there, it’s to hecharle ganas in whatever you decide to do. And know that life is not a straight line, pero cuando hay querer, hay poder—if it’s what you really want, things will work out in some way, shape, or form.