Transcript
What inspires you from WFSU Public Media? Here's this week's Voices That Inspire. My name is Monoxi McKinney. I'm a recent graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia and an incoming first year in the Molecules-South and Organism Graduate Program at Harvard University. I just love telehassy because it feels like we're surrounded by so many ecosystems at once. As a kid, I was always outside in the yard looking at bugs, animals, anything. Basically, I just spent all my time outside and I've always been interested in nature. My parents both went to FAMU and I grew up knowing the importance of HBCUs in the black community is black shifts of education and excellence. So I wasn't sure if I wanted to go to an HBCU, then I visited Spelman last. And just really feeling the energy on campus and feeling like I would be a part of a community that was for me, that was invested in me and invested in supporting me. Cy Girls is just incredibly influential in my journey and STEM, definitely. It was my first experience ever doing a science summer camp with Cy Girls and I'm going to grad school and I might go into academia, I'm not sure yet, but I know without a doubt, wherever I end up, I want to have an impact on younger generations of children, black kids, black girls, specifically interested in science. So I really would like to be that mentor and that positive face for them. My mom has been my biggest inspiration for sure. All the success I've had in my life, she's just really made a way for herself and has been very foundational in my knowing the importance of education and the importance of doing everything you can for yourself and for others. I am Maxi McKinney. I am an NSF graduate research fellow headed to Harvard University to get my PhD and molecule of thousand organisms. You're listening to voices that inspire.