“Without the Noyce Scholarship awarded to me, I would have dropped out of school to earn money to pay for the necessities of life. I would have lost my job as Lab Assistant in UVU’s Biology Lab, and the club I founded at UVU--Science Association of Women--would have had a less-certain future, impacting the experience of dozens of women in science at my university. Being raised by a teacher left me with a clear understanding of the very understated perception of this vital profession of our society. Growing up in one of the poorest-funded counties in the poorest education-funded state in the nation, I became familiar with what it takes for a teacher to stretch classroom and personal resources in order to provide for those who rely on them. Please know that I have used this money wisely, and that right now I’m writing this from the comforts of the humble home I was able to keep through a terrible economic recession. Hard work and persistence paid off for me. THANK YOU, National Science Foundation!”