Hello everyone and welcome to my little corner of the internet.

My name is Shayla Bess, and I am currently an online student at Old Dominion University. I reside in Washington, DC helping my parents out, along with my fursister Lucy, and my very Queenly Calico cat Sophi. Let me bring you up to speed as how I got here.

My entire academic childhood has been spent in summer camps doing math, science and tech. That time was spent at Yale Univ in the mid 1980s. My mother realized I enjoyed the STEM field and made sure to have me in them whenever she could. Forward a few years later and I am starting 8th grade, and I tell my parents that I want to be a Solider and a Brain doctor (if only I knew the path to that would be a super windy and upside down road!).

I graduated high school in 1998, and I enlisted in the Army from 2000-2003 as a Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Decontamination Specialist (NBC). After the Army I really didn’t know what I wanted to do. I went to school and obtained my Cosmetology license (15 years this year). I then got married in 2005 (to a Marine) and headed to Jacksonville, NC and started school with a major in Business Administration and minor in Financial Accounting at Coastal Carolina Community  College while working full time as a Hairstylist. I learned quickly that is was boring and I hated it. We then moved to MCRD San Diego, CA in 2007 when I tried Business again without the finance at American InterContinental University Online and again new that it was not what I wanted. So fast forward and I move back to the DMV in 2011 and attend Fortis College to become a Biotechnician. I wasn’t sold on the idea of a B.S degree yet, so I did the certificate program and loved it! I externed at the USDA ARS-WEST in 2011 doing environmental research and at UMBC Psy Dept 2011 working with mice for research study in-conjunction with the  VA. I was back on my sciences and math path!

After my externship at the USDA ARS-WEST, I got a one year contract and I loved it. Once the contract ended, I eventually moved to Philadelphia,PA with my husband and tried to go to school for Cardiac Tech. But the school kept losing my paperwork. So I enrolled at Community College of Philadelphia in the spring of 2014 as a Chem Tech student. Again, the program closed and I was moved into General Science. Which was fine since I wanted to major as a Chemist but they didn’t have that as an option. I also attended Penn Foster online for my Pharmacy Tech certification.  After meeting some awesome professors I ended up majoring as an Engineer and had an intern at Drexel Univ in Material Sciences the summer of 2015. There I did personal research on finding natural ways to combat and help people with serotonin deficiency . It was the best 3 months of my life, and I new where my path lied. Wanting to find natural ways along side medical and pharmaceutical ways in treating and combating mood and anxiety disorders.I ended up graduating the spring of 2016 with an AA in Liberal Sciences.

Bumps and turns and life happens. I ended back moving to the DC area in 2018 for the long term. I enrolled in Fortis the summer of 2016  for Medical Laboratory  Technicain. I needed the experience to go back into research, but it didn’t go as plan. I have been working as a Medical Lab tech for 2 years now, and I work primarily as a Transfusion Specialist, or a Blood Banker at a Trauma Hospital in MD. That means when you are in an accident or need blood products, or need to know your blood type, I am the one who tests your blood. I also make sure your red blood cells, plasma, platelets, and cyroprecipitate are typed specifically to you so the doctors and nurses can make sure you get the proper treatment. I also work in a pediatrician office in DC  where I draw blood and run Chemistry, Hematology, Urinalysis, and Micro and other tests to help the future be healthy.

Currently my goals are to continue on my path to obtain into clinical research. I have done personal research into Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Pituitary Ademomas, in which I suffer from both. Being able to understand the inner working of mental disorders and infertility has me on a very aggressive path. What my aspiration is, is to be a clinical researcher in which I can develop methods and ways to naturally help those with mood and anxiety disorders and women with infertility; while utilizing my biotechnological and medical laboratory skills to infuse everything together. My internship with Drexel drove home the researching for Biomedical/Material Science Engineering, which let me see my vision partially.

Currently I am majoring in Medical Laboratory Science for my B.S., but I feel that this path is not going to take me where I want to go. I plan on switching my major this fall to a possible dual major in Psychology and Public Health with a minor in Health and Wellness. I truly believe in blending Western and Eastern medicine, faith, and exercise and psychological wellness as a whole to aid the body in healing. Once I speak to my advisor I will share more of my path and let you guys know.

I am taking this course as Psychology was my  minor, but hopefully that will change. Social Psych was a class I wasn’t able to sign up for at Community College of Philadelphia, so I am excited to see how this goes. I am an introvert and really don’t like talking or interacting with people (hence why I love lab work and research, I tend to work on my own!) Social Psychology will help me be more outspoken and more interactive with others as well as helping me observe people and make sure they can receive and obtain the help that they need.

I look forward to growing with you all as you follow my crazy up and down life as a soon to be Psych major.