Build Your Own Door

Let me introduce myself. My name is Danielle Scarano. I'm an 18 year old rising sophomore at Duke University. I'm currently working in a neural stem cell lab  If you were to ask me who I am there are many different replies I could give. I’m an illustrator of imagination, and a master in the art of sarcasm. I’m a onetime skier, an expert taco maker, and an theoretical physics documentaries addict. I’m an atrocious singer, and an incompetent swimmer. I stand at a mere five foot one, have green eyes, and a terrible fear of spiders. I am a gold medalist in the International Sustainable World Project Olympiad, a two-time All County Artist, a Simons Research Fellow, a Siemens Semifinalist and a finalist in the Hong Kong International Science fair. I could tell you that science has always been my passion, and that I could recite the planets backwards and forwards at age three.  I could tell you many things, but alone these things do little to define me. So come along with me on my journey, as I try to figure out who I am and what I wish to pursue. 

There’s a little quote that I’m quite fond of by William J. H. Boetcker. It goes, “The difficulties and struggles of today are but the price we must pay for the accomplishments and victories of tomorrow.” In order to effectively articulate my expectations for this summer, I think it’s best to tell you a little bit about how I see things. Everyone looks at the world from a different perspective. Everyone has faced troubles, terrors and triumphs. I would say that all the Howard Hughes Research Fellows have something to be proud of. We are at one of the best institutions on the planet, especially when it comes to cutting-edge research, and all of us hit the ground running. Duke is a realm of endless opportunity, and we took it. I think that alone is exceptionally commendable. There are those who see opportunity and are too fearful to go for the gold, and there are those who take it. Life is too short. We must be bold in our pursuits. And even if opportunity doesn’t present itself to us, we shan’t let that hinder our progress. Persistence is something of incredible value. It is what distinguishes those who reach for the stars from those that actually grasp them.

As Milton Berle once stated, “If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door.” This is the philosophy I follow, or at least try my best to. To demonstrate this best I’d like to quote something from my Howard Hughes Application, “In science it is inevitable that we will sometimes fail. As we test our hypotheses and attempt to answer questions we are often wrong. Yet if our drive to find answers is crushed by a mere failed attempt than science could never be successful. If the great minds of the past had given up after their initial hypotheses failed, then science would never have progressed to level it is at today.” That is why inventors, businessmen, and most of all scientists must build doors. They must formulate alternative solutions, deduce answers to questions, and frequently oppose a widely accepted idea. They must enlighten and challenge.

So I say, today’s struggles are tomorrow’s successes. As scientists this summer there will be times that we fail, times that we mess up, when our experiments don’t go as we anticipate. Although I have already worked in several labs, I expect that I will have some failures. Even the best scientists do. Some of the most interesting and revolutionary discoveries have resulted from mishaps. Perhaps then it is wrong to describe these mistakes as “failures.” It is probably more accurate to label them as discoveries.

As Thomas Edison once said, “I will not say I failed 1000 times, I will say that I discovered there are 1000 ways to cause a failure.” This summer I expect to grow as a scientist. I am now at a point in my life where I must decide which direction I want my life to go. Although I have known since I was young that it was in science, it is only through the anticipated practice, persistence, and discovery that my time as Howard Hughes Research Fellow will provide that I will be able to develop a clearer understanding of who I am and what doors I wish to create.

Me working in the lab!

Hopefully my corny motivational speech has inspired you to be bold in your own pursuits.

Sincerely Yours,

Danielle