Reflecting on the Journey
![](http://www.college.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/feature_player_carousel/public/featuredstories/amari_tankard.jpg?itok=0r8mp8XT)
“When I was younger, I didn’t really understand [cancer], so I thought, why not investigate it and see what’s happening? I was confused by the science of it and that’s when I decided I wanted to cure cancer, when I was 10. Being a woman and black and in science is a rare combination. I want to be the researcher behind making more effective drugs. You think how cancer spreads and how it’s a form of cell regulation, so what [we can] fix or change is how our medications are affecting healthy tissue and how they’re targeting abnormal cells.”
Amari Tankard CC'17
![](http://www.college.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/feature_player_carousel/public/featuredstories/junghoon_kim_at_the_north_rig.jpg?itok=JTsD72v1)
"For any approach we tried, it was necessary to create, troubleshoot and standardize our own methods from scratch, analogous to creating a unique game that demands strict adherence to a particular set of rules. Though challenging, the newfound discomfort of this method was a unique opportunity for an undergraduate, one that encouraged me to become comfortable asking open-ended questions, to stick with inferences that were uncertain in outcome and to be at relative ease being unable to find immediate confirmation of my process in a book."
Junghoon Kim CC'16
![](http://www.college.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/feature_player_carousel/public/featuredstories/danielle-crosswell2.jpg?itok=lYyCdVIL)
“Over the past year, I’ve been considered the [K=1 Project’s] team captain, so I got a lot of experience managing a large project and a lot of people. There are a ton of moving parts – we’re about to get on a boat in the middle of uninhabited islands, and if we forget to bring anything, there’s no CVS we can go to. So it’s about thinking of every detail. It’s a really unique experience, and hopefully the work that we’re doing actually affects the lives of people."
Danielle Crosswell CC'17