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University is one of the most stimulating intellectual environments in the world. I immensely enjoy the constant encounters with new ideas and people of every discipline, and one of my greatest loves in life is teaching students. So far, the highlight of my academic career has been the time I spent getting a graduate degree up in Boston at MIT--not just because of the university itself--but because of the greater gestalt of Boston as an intellectual community and the frequent encounters with people from every imaginable career and culture. As my brother remarked when he visited: "You feel smarter just walking around."

  • Completed the Science Writing M.S. graduate program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA (Boston).

  • Graduating MIT, my thesis was entitled The Basis for Dreaming: Physiology, Theory and Practice and was advised by Dr. Alan Lightman (internationally known physicist and the bestselling author of Einstein's Dreams). Secondary advisors were Robert Kanigel (Director of MIT's program in Science Writing and the author of The Man Who Knew Infinity), and Dr. Rosalind Williams (Director of MIT's Program in Science, Technology and Society and the author of Retooling).

  • Elective coursework at MIT included classes in Language and Thought (cognitive neuroscience), 20th Century Physics (history and application), and Feeling and Imagination (the physiology of human emotion and ingenuity).

  • Most recently, I fulfilled a lifetime dream by going to art school. I spent one semester in the Drawing and Painting graduate program at the University of North Texas (the top public university art program in the nation) and achieved high marks for my work and teaching there. The dream proved to be more fulfilling than the actual experience, and I withdrew to pursue a more lucrative and fulfilling career, but the time at UNT helped further my personal development as a creative thinker and amateur graphic designer.

  • Spent two years working on various faculty review and hiring committees related to the Art and Technology degree program at the University of Texas at Dallas; appointed Graduate Student Representative to the Committee for the formation of the emerging Art and Technology Degree Program (now active).

  • Completed a B.A. with Honors in Literary Studies from The University of Texas at Dallas (Richardson, TX) where I graduated with an overall GPA of 3.72 and a GPA of 3.95 in my major. I specialized in modern short story and multicultural literature.

  • Selected for the Johnson Scholarship for exceptional work in Arts & Humanities (UTD, Spring 1999)

  • UTD Silver Anniversary Scholarship: Full tuition, housing, books and a living stipend for 8 Semesters