2018-2019 Avatar: Alex Stewart

Hello! My name is Alexander Stewart, but I usually just go by Alex. I’m from the small town of Morehead, Kentucky. I learned about Gatton from one of my friends a grade ahead of me that attended the academy. He gave it glowing praise, and I decided that I needed to see what the school had to offer. My family and I attended the last preview day before my classes’ application window closed. The talks of study abroad and research piqued my interest because they were things that I wasn’t going to be able to do to if I stayed in my hometown. There was also a feeling of openness and sincerity when the students did their panel and talked with me on the tour that removed any apprehensions I’d had about applying. After the preview day, I buckled down and finished my application, and the rest is history.

In coming to Gatton, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to do some of the things I’d done at my high school. Theatre and band were two of the activities that I had to give up because I felt there wasn’t enough time to dedicate myself to them. There were always other things that took their place, though. Instead of working in the tech booth at the back of the theatre, I was doing research in a biology laboratory. Instead of playing trumpet in the band, I was staying up late playing guitar hero with the guys on my floor (maybe not really a good replacement, but I was able to build a tight-knit community with everyone on the floor, which helped a lot later). That’s not to say that I couldn’t have continued those activities; I just chose to try some new ones.

The thing that I’ve enjoyed the most at Gatton has to be the research that I’ve done. My first year, I participated in the Genome Discovery and Exploration Program (GDEP). The program is a yearlong experience where the first semester consists of isolating and characterizing a bacteriophage (a virus that infects bacteria) from an environmental sample, and the second semester consists of the annotation of a bacteriophage genome. GDEP was my first ever experience with research and a research lab, so it was an incredible learning exercise. During the second half of GDEP, I wanted to do more research, so I helped with a project in Dr. Noah Ashley’s lab that dealt with zebra finches’ immune response to sleep deprivation. The summer brought the end of GDEP and my research with Dr. Ashley, but I wanted more. The first eight weeks of my summer were spent on research my Research Internship Grant (RIG) where I studied bacteriophage structure with Dr. Claire Rinehart.

After my RIG ended, I had about a week before I left the country for the first time for Gatton’s Harlaxton study abroad program. Before the trip, I fell in love with Wuthering Heights and getting to go to the moors and see what inspired the book was the best. London was very fast-paced and I was busy sightseeing for the entire week that we spent there. Harlaxton Manor and the trips that we took while we were there were much more relaxed and leisurely. Being in England and studying the literature that came out of it rekindled my interest in reading and was just an all-around incredible time.

I may have rambled a little bit, but I think it was necessary to encompass (almost) everything that I’ve done and seen at Gatton. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

 

Alex