DG: What made you decide to be a scientist?
AL: I have always preferred science topics to humanities, but I wasn’t one of those people who dreamt of being an astronomer from a young age. It was more of a process. What mainly appealed to me in scientific research is that you don’t know what the answer will be, you might have an idea, but you don’t really know. We are not working on going from A to B, but exploring. I also like how collaborative science is, how we build upon ideas from people all over the world, both present and past. I like being a part of the great human endeavor to build our collective knowledge.
DG: How did your previous experiences impact your view on STEM careers? When was the first time you saw yourself as a scientist?
AL: As a first-generation college student for a long time I have only seen myself as someone learning what others have done in science. The first time I realized that I could be a part of the people contributing to this body of knowledge was when I got to my undergraduate institution and found out about the research opportunities they had with professors. Having a science question and going out to find an answer, doing the actual work instead of just learning about it in class made me realize that I could be a part of this.
DG: Tell us about yourself, what do you do for fun?
AL: I like hiking, as long as it's not too steep, so that my mind is not completely preoccupied with the hike itself. I like camping, visiting dark sky spots and just being in nature. I am also into painting and I like using pastels. I mostly do impressionist landscapes; I love how it can look really messy close up, but if one takes a step back and squints it suddenly looks beautiful.
DG: Becoming a scientist is not easy. Have you faced many challenges in getting this far?
AL: It was not at all easy. I am from Jamaica and I knew that I wanted to go abroad to find a good physics or astronomy program. Unfortunately, I knew very little about how to do that, as I am the first one in my family to go to university, especially one in a different country. There were agencies that could help, but we couldn’t afford those, so I had to do all the research on the process, like SATs, visas, by myself.
Even after being accepted to Colgate I found new challenges there, like being one of the very few women or persons of color in physics classes. Being a first-generation college student, I had no idea how things really worked, I had to build my own support network. I also wanted to go to graduate school but I did not know what one needs to do during undergrad to get there.
DG: What advice would you give to a high school or undergraduate student from a similar background as yours who would want to follow the same path as you?
AL: Students coming to a foreign school often feel isolated. For example, my school is a predominantly white institution, people from the Caribbean are few and far between. But they are there and I would advise incoming students to seek out others at the university with similar backgrounds and shared experiences, who understand their issues and can help them. This is one of the main reasons that I am one of the co-leaders of the
local Caribbean Students Association at my school.
local Caribbean Students Association at my school.
Amanda will be presenting her results at the AAS winter meeting in 2022 and she will also planning to apply for graduate school this Fall and continue doing research in astronomy.
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