National Science Foundation Fellowship!!!

Back by popular demand (and by popular I mean 3 people) =) I am going to try to make posts more frequently. My amazing news today is that I got the National Science Foundation Fellowship! I applied for it back in November. It was three essays: what research you want to do, what research you've done and how are you going to contribute to society as a scientist? As part of the fellowship, I get 30,000/year for three years to do my research! Here is some info about the NSF grant:
https://www.nsfgradfellows.org/about_the_program/history

And here are some people that received the fellowship in the past. It is such an honor to receive this, I am still in shock and on cloud nine!
https://www.nsfgradfellows.org/about_the_program/fellow_profiles

Although I am beyond happy about this, I feel a tremendous sense of responsibility now to do my very best. I am intimidated by this but thankfully I have so many incredible friends and family that believe in me, and help me in all the times when I doubt myself. This makes me want to reach for the stars even more and make really cool discoveries, make a difference in the world and help in any way to improve our understanding of biology and disease! Whew!