Senior Reflection: Brigid Toomey

CAS MarComm Author

05/13/2025 Added

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Brigid Toomey gives a senior reflection at the May 9, 2025 Celebration of Excellence.

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[00:00:00.000]Hi, good evening, and thank you for having me tonight.
[00:00:05.540]Again, my name is Brigid Toomey, and next week I'll be graduating with a Bachelor of
[00:00:09.560]Science in Biological Sciences with minors in Biochemistry and French.
[00:00:14.220]As you might have seen earlier, I've been a student ambassador for the College of Arts
[00:00:18.240]and Sciences for the last four years, with the opportunity to serve on the leadership
[00:00:22.460]team for the last two.
[00:00:24.560]In that role, one thing that I do all the time is reflect on and share the most impactful
[00:00:29.440]and favorite classes and experiences that I've had as a CAS student with prospective
[00:00:34.500]students when they visit campus.
[00:00:36.640]So I'm really excited that tonight somebody other than our wonderful recruiters or future
[00:00:41.220]Huskers will get to hear my journey.
[00:00:44.760]So as a first-year student, deciding my major was very easy.
[00:00:48.340]I was simply confident in my passion in biology, however, I wasn't interested in a pre-medicine
[00:00:54.720]track.
[00:00:55.720]I am unfortunately squeamish.
[00:00:57.720]I don't do blood.
[00:00:58.880]No needles.
[00:01:00.200]Keep incisions away from me.
[00:01:02.640]But I didn't know what else to do with a degree in biology.
[00:01:07.160]And so the summer before my first semester, I met with my advisor at that time, who was
[00:01:12.260]Michaela Tegler.
[00:01:13.980]And she was so great about helping me find a career path that spoke to me.
[00:01:19.220]She recommended me for the course BIOS 136, or it's called Virus Hunting.
[00:01:23.640]It was taught by Dr. Katherine Chopp.
[00:01:26.200]She has since retired.
[00:01:28.040]The class was a 15-person lab-based class.
[00:01:31.520]I started my college career by digging up dirt outside of my dorm at Knoll.
[00:01:37.360]And then I spent the rest of the semester isolating and characterizing a novel bacteriophage
[00:01:43.590]and it was deposited in a national database.
[00:01:46.090]And that was how I found my love of research
[00:01:50.070]and how I decided to pursue biomedical research for my career.
[00:01:53.870]So with this newfound passion in the spring of my first year,
[00:01:58.530]I joined a microbial genetics laboratory in the Beadle Center
[00:02:02.310]with the supervision of Dr. Audrey Atkin,
[00:02:05.290]and I've since conducted undergraduate research.
[00:02:08.530]With the support of Dr. Atkin and the Nebraska Embry Program,
[00:02:13.170]I've successfully co-authored two publications of my work,
[00:02:16.450]I have completed an undergraduate thesis for CAS,
[00:02:19.530]and I have been admitted to a graduate program
[00:02:22.650]to pursue a PhD in cancer biology at Washington University in St. Louis,
[00:02:27.450]which I will begin in the fall of 2026,
[00:02:31.010]after my gap year studying abroad on a Fulbright Award to France.
[00:02:35.190]Thank you.
[00:02:37.310]Thank you so much.
[00:02:42.750]I'm really, really proud of myself and my accomplishments,
[00:02:45.510]but more so I'm thankful for all my peers, all my professors,
[00:02:49.890]and the faculty that have supported me along the way.
[00:02:52.950]I like to think about the butterfly effect and how I might not be here
[00:02:57.010]if Michaela, my former advisor, hadn't recommended me for that class.
[00:03:00.030]And coming from out of state, I get incredibly homesick sometimes,
[00:03:04.970]but I'm really grateful for the community that CAS has given me
[00:03:08.390]while I built a second home in Nebraska.
[00:03:10.570]So I'm excited to see what the future holds.
[00:03:12.330]I hope everyone in this room will send me a friend request on LinkedIn
[00:03:16.810]so that I can keep up with all of you brilliant alumni.
[00:03:19.510]And thank you so much. Have a good night.
[00:03:21.770].
[00:03:24.770]Thank you.

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