Hey, what’s up y’all? My name is Kathryn Patterson. I am from Talladega, Alabama. I am a sophomore here at Birmingham Southern, and I am currently a biology major and psychology minor on a pre-med track. After BSC, I hope to go to UAB to further my education. The end goal is not fully determined as of right now, but I guess you could say my primary interest is oncology. Since I was twelve, I have always said that I wanted to go into medicine, specifically that I wanted to work with cancer. I have been fortunate enough to know some amazing people that have sadly had to endure this horrible disease, and for some reason, I just feel drawn to it. I am also very interested in emergency medicine and the psychological affects of disease.
Some things I really hope to learn from this class are what causes infectious diseases? What are the ways that disease can be spread from animals to humans? What can we do to prevent the diseases from spreading? Another thing I would like to learn about is how patients with infectious diseases are treated and how to determine how far within a population a disease has spread and how a disease can be eradicated. A fact about me is that I am a certified archery instructor, and I used to compete. I am also a lifeguard and assistant swim coach and I swam competitively for eight years. I definitely hope to travel a lot in my lifetime. There are so many places I would like to go, but one place that I have to see before I die is Edinburgh, Scotland. A close second would be the Amalfi Coast in Italy. Both of these places are absolutely gorgeous, but Scotland’s national animal is the unicorn, and I think that speaks for itself.